Brio Technology signed an agreement to acquire reporting tools company Sqribe Technologies for $270m in shares, doubling the size of Brio overnight and stopping Sqribe’s hitherto-secret plans for an IPO dead in their tracks. The deal gives Brio’s shareholders 55% and Sqribe’s shareholders 45% of the enlarged company, mirroring the close proximity in revenues of the two concerns. Last year, Brio did $40.5m in sales, while Sqribe’s revenues were $39.2m.
LSI Logic agreed to acquire Fremont, California-based Seeq Technology, the data communications chip company, for $100m in stock. LSI wants Seeq, whose customers include 3Com, Cisco Systems , Intel , Nortel and Lucent, to boost its own networking division, one of its faster growing divisions. Seeq’s products are typically used in hubs, routers, switches and network interface cards. Seeq’s revenues were $28.1m in 1998. The acquisition is likely to be completed in the second quarter.
Ameritech moved to bolster its data service offerings by acquiring the North American Network Integration Division of Anixter International for $200m in cash. The unit specializes in data network design and consulting and the deal will add 1,200 Anixter people to Ameritech’s data-related workforce increasing it by 35% to 4,600 people.
Sage completed its acquisition of corporate tax software provider Taxsoft and its parent company Quantec Holdings, both based in London, England. The deal, worth 10.5m pounds, was funded by existing cash resources. It allows Sage to offer a larger range of accountancy software. Taxsoft saw operating profits for the year ending September 30 1998 of 0.9m pounds on revenues of 4.8m pounds.
