The little-publicized merger of Thomson-CSF’s Thomson Software Products group and long-time object application development Interactive Development Environments Inc is due to complete tomorrow with the creation of Aonix Inc. The companies signed a letter of intent to merge back in May and although they say the new venture will be one of the world’s top 50 software companies with revenues of around $75m. Thomson Software Products, the San Diego, California-based unit of Thomson-CSF’s information products division based in Paris, was created in early 1995 from the acquisitions of Must Software International and Alsys Inc and specializes in object-oriented Ada application development and Unix graphical user interface tools. IDE, based in San Francisco, California, whose intended market for object application development has recently been gobbled up by the likes of Rational Software Corp has been seeking routes into other markets by adding Java and OMG Corba capabilities to its Software through Pictures development environment. Thomson Software said last year it would grow the operation through acquisitions and mergers in 1996 and claims the San Francisco-based Aonix will give Rational, Cayenne Software, Select Software and Platinum a run for their money, though to outsiders it looks like a last ditch attempt to resurrect the fortunes of the unit (CI No 2,580). Following the acquisition of Must and Alsys Thomson said its new Software products group alone would turn over $75m. Aonix says it will target new application development and data warehouse solutions.
