Accpac International, a division of Computer Associates' interBiz group, announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire LA Technology, one of its African distributors. The vendor says that the acquisition of LA Technology - to be known as Accpac Africa - will give it a direct presence in the African market.
Jeremy Waterman, MD of LA Technology, will continue in his role as MD of Accpac Africa. "For the past couple of years we have only been moving Accpac and some related products, so there will be no change in the day-to-day operations of the company. It's basically just a name change," he affirms. "We expect a smooth transition to the new organisation."
"In the medium term it should enable us to become more aggressive," he continues. Accpac Africa will look at e-business, portals and ASP models to increase its market share. "The pure software distributor model is going to be a bit obsolete," he comments.
"The business applications market is being profoundly affected by the new e-business economy," said Waterman. "As Accpac Africa, we now have the flexibility to pursue new business models, particularly B2B opportunities and software rental models provided via Application Service Providers," says Waterman.
The company reaffirmed its commitment to the channel, and guarantees that it will stick with its 150-odd business partners to reach its customers. He adds that the ASP model will not cut out the middleman either.
LA Technology has marketed, distributed, and supported Accpac's accounting and business management solutions since 1989. Consistently Accpac's best performing distributor, LA Technology has won Accpac's International Distributor of the Year Award over five of the last six years.
"LA Technology has consistently demonstrated excellent business practices and delivered outstanding results in distributing and supporting Accpac solutions," says David Hood, Accpac president and CEO. "This acquisition is the natural next step for both Accpac and LA Technology to best serve our mutual customers and business partners throughout the region."
Accpac is a provider of accounting and e-business management solutions for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and claims more than 10 000 customers locally.
Completion of the acquisition will be subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including that of the South African Competition Commission.
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