Highly-acquisitive electronic commerce firm Sterling Commerce Inc has been shopping for toys this time, and picked up UK-based electronic data interchange company The Electronic Data Exchange Service Ltd, for its customer base of UK toy manufacturers. Electronic Data Exchange, based in Surrey, provides EDI services and software to more than 100 of the UK’s major toy manufacturers. Colin Campbell, Sterling’s director of marketing and international development, says the purchase fits with Sterling’s acquisition strategy, which is to grow the business outside the US through at least three purchases a year. The purchase must either add new technology to Sterling’s portfolio, add a geographic area, or give it presence in a vertical market, as in this latest case. Financial details were not given, but Campbell says the purchase was relatively small compared to the company’s $200m buy of remote systems management software company XcelleNet Inc in April (CI No 3,392). This is the fourth acquisition for Sterling this year. In April it bought the EDI software and services unit of Germany’s o.tel.o Communications GmbH, and earlier this month it bought Sterling Software Inc’s international operations, which sold and supported Sterling Commerce’s Gentran and Connect product families. Earlier this month the company announced it had been selected by Compaq Computer Corp to supply an end-to-end EDI system for 900 Compaq channel partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Following a successful pilot implementation for Compaq in Germany, the system will apparently be extended to 19 countries in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Campbell says there are more acquisitions to come this year, and these are likely to be significantly larger after September 30, two years after the company’s IPO, when it will be able to start using its stock to make more ambitious purchases.
