Toronto, Canada-based software house Speedware Corp Inc has picked up Software AG’s Esperant graphical SQL access and reporting software division, paying $3m for the rights to the product, including Esperant’s existing customer base. Speedware also gets the 21 software development and marketing personnel, who will remain at Esperant’s New Haven, Connecticut center. Software AG will act as a distributor of Esperant through its affiliates worldwide. Esperant is generally well respected for its ability to join data from heterogeneous databases and for its ease of use – it doesn’t require knowledge of SQL or database structure – although security and administration is said to be a little weak. Launched in 1994, it was the first tool from Software AG that didn’t need to be used in conjunction with the company’s Entire and Adabas products, and the division was always run as a separate unit. Speedware plans to meld Esperant with its Media business intelligence software after the next software release, expected by the end of the year, but says it wants to see exactly what it’s got on its hands before saying what features the next release will include. Media includes a multi-dimensional, multi-matrix database, which is said to provide graphical drill down and analysis of data stored in corporate databases. The combined products will be aimed at querying and reporting in personal computer and client/server environments. They’ll be integrated with Speedware’s EasyReporter, a client/server product for midrange systems that extracts text reports from corporate databases. The Media family came to Speedware by acquisition, when the company purchased Info Innov of Quebec City in 1994. That company became Speedware’s Media Division, which continues to be based in Quebec City.
