After months of uncertain talks about a potential takeover, Select Software Tools Inc, the troubled UK based application design and development tools firm, was finally forced to throw the towel on Friday, with the announcement that the company has gone into liquidation and sold all its assets to Princeton Softech, a subsidiary of Computer Horizons Corp, for an undisclosed sum.

The news follows months of speculation about possible partners for Select, which last posted a profit in March 1997, and has been struggling to keep its Nasdaq listing since its debut on the market earlier this year. In an official statement Friday, the software firm, which is headquartered in Cheltenham, UK said it had applied to the Bristol (England) High Court to appoint an administrator for the company’s affairs. Select CEO, Bernard Fisher, said the board had been seeking suitable partners for some time and has had discussions with a number of parties seeking a merger or share acquisition of Select. But in the end, all the discussions proved fruitless due to the uncertainty surrounding a pending class action suit.

With the withdrawal of Base Ten Systems, the only remaining candidate for an equity-based agreement has disappeared. Fisher said, in order to protect the creditors and the company’s staff, Select’s board of directors has reluctantly taken this step”.

Under the new deal, announced yesterday, Princeton said it has purchased all Select’s assets including all its software products and intellectual property rights, as well as all Select’s staff, buildings and associated costs and leases. The only thing we didn’t acquire was the law suits, said Steve Gerrard, Princeton Softech’s VP of strategic planning, the administrator will have to do that.

Select’s product line-up includes Reverser for PeopleTools, a data modeling tool for PeopleSoft applications; Component Factory, comprised of Select Enterprise, Select SE and SELECT Component Manager.

Princeton Softech, a subsidiary of the IT services supplier, Computer Horizons Corp, makes software products for developing and deploying enterprise applications. These include management tools, e-business application development software, data movement, data migration and application testing programs. It says the move will position Princeton Softech as a market leader of object-oriented, component-based development products for enterprises developing and implementing Java and C++ e-business applications.

Gerrard said Princeton had first started talking to Select back in November 1998 but had broken off talks when it realized Select had a class action law suit in the works. Then, when Base Ten officially withdrew from talks for the same reason in April this year, Gerrard said Select approached Princeton about buying the company’s assets.

Gerrard said Princeton paid for the assets in cash, although he said he wasn’t at liberty to disclose how much. A handful of the Select’s 120 staff worldwide are expected to be axed, mainly at the executive and financial level, Gerrard said. Now the company is no longer listed, of course there will be a number of redundant staff, but we don’t expect it to be severe.

Princeton will continue to fund the R&D work at Select’s Cheltenham offices and will work to integrate some of its software with Princeton’s own line of products. Gerrard said specific integration plans will be announced over the next couple of months, while details about staff cuts would be announced in the next 10 days.

Bernard Fisher, CEO of Select Software Tools said the deal with Princeton was good for three main reasons. First, our customers can have confidence in the long-term viability of the products they have purchased from Select; second, Princeton Softech’s proven software distribution channel will expand the presence of these products in the marketplace; and third, Princeton Softech brings financial backing and stability to the current software development and support efforts. á