For some reason that we have so far failed to fathom, a torrent of US computer industry merger and acquisition activity bursts forth at this time of year – when much of the rest of the world is otherwise occupied with thoughts of vacation. Yesterday’s big deal saw a long-term acquisition candidate, Atlanta-based software engineering specialist KnowledgeWare Inc, whose one hot property is the ObjectView graphical user interface builder from its Matesys Inc acuqisition, falling to Sterling Software Inc, Dallas, for about $143m – about one year’s turnover. Sterling, which had been quiet for a long time until it bought Systems Center Inc last year, is still weighed down with many declining mainframe software products – its core is the old Informatics business – and KnowledgeWare does not seem to do a great deal to modernise its portfolio. It is a share exchange deal in which Sterling will issue 0.2893 of a share for each KnowledgeWare out, or about 4.21m Sterling shares. There is also a lockout agreement to discourage others from muscling in to spoil the party, and Sterling has commitment to approve from holders of 16% of KnowledgeWare’s equity.
