Infopro Technologies Inc’s sale of its three subsidiaries (CI No 2,345) is an important carve-up, although the company itself was surely no turkey. To recap, the Orbit on-line database firm goes to Questel, which is a subsidiary of France Telecom’s Software and Systems division. BRS Online Products, which produces a search services to a host of databases, has gone to CD Plus Technologies Inc, while Dataware Technologies Inc has bought up the BRS Software products division, which produces search software. The Questel deal gives the French firm a gateway into the US, where it had a minimal prescence before. Questel, which provides search services for 150 databases, specialises in the patent and intellectual copyright areas, but also offers services for the scientific and technical markets. Another reason for its acquisition is so that it can further consolidate its patent database service in which Orbit specialises. According to Questel’s sales and marketing director Osman Sultan, the purchase boosts Questel’s annual turnover to $39.1mfrom $25.5m. The sale of BRS Online Products to CD Plus gives the latter a chance to speed up the implementation of full text search facilities in its software according to Skip Major, CD Plus’ vice-president of marketing and corporate development. The company, which is moving towards a media independent database search facility to customers, will enter a transitional phase when the purchase goes through at the end of February, which will last for a few months. It is hoping to retain all staff at least during this period. Dataware Technologies Inc, meanwhile, will be using the BRS Software Products division to diversify its business, adding an on-line information side to complement its existing CD-ROM title production and distribution business. The firm, which recently bought Canadian distributor Megalith Technologies Inc, will use the BRS/Search software to provide full-text search facilities. The sale of Infopro by Macmillan is part of the dismemberment of the crashed Maxwell Communications Corp Plc empire.
