Lotus Development Corp is to acquire SoftSwitch Inc, the Wayne, Pennsylvania communications software and systems company to which IBM Corp had to turn to get itself out of a hole when it got hopelessly bogged down developing the communications for its OfficeVision suite. SoftSwitch specialises in electronic mail messaging switches that link disparate electronic mail systems, with the accent on linking IBM systems to alien ones. The newly hungry Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Lotus is buying the privately-held company for 1.3m new Lotus shares, valuing it at an indicated $70m or so. No figures were available for SoftSwitch but the company is reported to have been shopped around for some time, with IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, AT&T Corp and Control Data Systems Inc all said to have taken a look as well as Lotus.
