Dallas, Texas-based computer services and software company Sterling Software Inc has acquired the personal computer-based Electronic Data Interchange, EDI, products and customer base of Surrey-based Entity Software Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Entity’s EDI software business will be fully integrated into Sterling’s Uxbridge, Middlesex-based International Electronic Data Interchange division, known internally as Ordernet International. The division sells and supports Sterling’s products and services worldwide with the exception of the US. The US, being the company’s biggest market, has its own separate division, which also covers Canada. The UK comes next in order of importance. According to Ordernet International’s director of marketing and product management, Mary DeTuerk, the products, which include Entity’s EDItion EDI translator, complement Sterling’s existing range of software, but at the same time take it into the previously unexplored personal computer market. Sterling’s own Electronic Data Interchange products comprise Sterling Gentran and Sterling Gentran Plus for MVS and VME mainframes; Sterling Gentran for AS/400s, mid-range Unix, and Digital Equipment Corp VAXes. Ms DeTuerk said that the group had been interested in moving into the personal computer arena for some time, so the recent acquisition would save on research and development costs. Sterling also gains an installed customer base of 170 from Entity. These customers are located mainly in the UK, but business from multinational companies, such as Unilever Group Plc, is reportedly growing. As part of the agreement, Sterling will take on about eight of Entity’s staff, including Bill Owen – one of the founding directors – who will work for the company as sales and customer services manager. Managing director of Entity, Colin Wickes, said that his company will now focus on expanding its core consultancy business. Sterling’s Electronic Data Interchange business is the fastest growing of the group’s operations, with turnover up from $21m in 1989 to $56m in 1992. Although the division serves a whole range of markets, it specialises in the retail sector. Sterling’s other operations comprise a systems software group, which develops and markets systems software to manage data storage, application data and data communications for users of IBM Corp mainframes – in 1992, sales here were $100m; and the Federal Systems group, which sells software exclusively to the US government for use in classified projects. Revenues for this totalled $95m last year.
