Expanding into Europe, ambitious business application development software house Template Software Inc is to acquire a German company it has been working closely with over the last twelve months. Template’s target is client-server application development house Milestone GmbH, which has offices in Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt, as well as an Austrian subsidiary. Template has signed a letter of intent to acquire Milestone, and will take a minority stake in the Austrian operation, in exchange for $7.44m and 90,000 shares of Template common stock, which closed Wednesday at $14.25. The purchase will add 116 new employees, including 20 sales people, to the company. Milestone, said to be on target to make $10.4m in revenue for fiscal 1997 ending June 30, will be renamed Template Software GmbH. Template was attracted to Milestone by its expertise in object-oriented programming, as Template itself has already built up a library of over one million lines of reusable object code, organized into layered templates, which it uses to supply part- baked applications for the telecommunications, finance, manufacturing and transport industries for bespoke tailoring (CI No 3,117). These are packaged into its Snap development environment, now on Version 8.0. Template, based in Dulles, Virginia, had a turnover of $13.5m last year. Last year it sold a 10% stake of the company to French telecommunications company Alcatel Alsthom SA, and has UK, France and Netherlands-based offices.