In a move that threatens to knock a big hole in Cincom Systems Inc’s business, Systems Center Inc, the Reston, Virginia company still better known as VM Software, has definitive agreement to buy Chatsworth, New South Wales Net/Master developer Software Developments International Pty Ltd for about $43m in shares. Cincom took worldwide rights to market the Net/Master network management system in 1984 under a five-year agreement renewable a year at a time thereafter. Net/Master is generally regarded as the keenest rival for IBM’s NetView, and scores well ahead of it in user satisfaction surveys. Underlining the importance of Net/Master to Cincom, although the Australian company’s annual sales are put at only $10m, sales of Net/Master are put at $35m last year: it is in use at over 1,700 sites. Systems Center is negotiating to buy out Cincom’s remaining rights in the product. Cincom says that Net/Master accounts for 15% of worldwide sales but 25% of its business in the UK – but is confident that new products it has coming through will fill the gap.
