OpenText acquires Global 360

Issued by Global Research Partners for Open Text
Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2011

OpenText Corporation, the pre-eminent provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software, today announced it has acquired Global 360 Holding Corporation, a leading provider of process and case management solutions.

The acquisition continues OpenText's expansion into the fast-growing business process management (BPM) market, adding to its technology, talent, services, partner and geographical strengths, as well as giving the company important new capabilities in dynamic case management.

Merger agreement

The transaction purchase price is approximately $260 million, subject to customary purchase price and holdback adjustments. Global 360 has generated approximately $90 million in trailing 12 months' revenue and is profitable.

The transaction has closed in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, and is not part of the fiscal 2011 fourth quarter and year-end results of OpenText. The management team of OpenText will provide further information regarding the future plans of the combined company when it provides fiscal year-end results, on 10 August 2011.

“Many global organisations, about 60%, already connect their enterprise content management (ECM) and BPM projects under a single strategy. Customers are moving in this direction and we are accelerating our investment in leading content, process and case management solutions as a result,” commented John Shackleton, President and Chief Executive Officer of OpenText. “With the addition of Global 360, we will be able to offer organisations a complete spectrum of solutions from a strong, independent and global solutions provider.”

Global 360, headquartered in Dallas, Texas with customers in 70 countries, is known for its case management solutions, its document-centric BPM, and its emphasis on usability and user experience in its software. In February 2011, OpenText also acquired Metastorm, a BPM leader with strong and complementary capabilities, including support for human-centric BPM. Metastorm also offers other solutions that complement Global 360, such as business process analysis and enterprise architecture software.

This increased investment in the BPM market demonstrates OpenText's focus on strategic acquisitions of technologies that build out its extended portfolio of solutions. The two acquisitions bring an extended base of expertise - 300 people in R&D alone - dedicated to BPM and dynamic case management solutions, plus a further reach in key verticals such as financial services, energy, government, life sciences and other industries. OpenText can now solve a much broader range of customer requirements, and at the same time extend its reach across all facets of solutions involving content and business processes.

Dynamic case management

Global 360's strength in case management accelerates OpenText's ability to deliver dynamic case management solutions. Dynamic case management has emerged from the convergence of ECM, BPM, analytics, and user experience technologies. It has become an important new set of solutions addressing some of the key problems organisations deal with that combine BPM, with an increased focus on content.

“The major, case-based operations in large organisations are heavily dependent on content and process management, for example, loan processing, complaint management, claims processing and customer on-boarding. All of these solutions can benefit from dynamic case management, which more effectively combines content, processes and collaboration,” added Eugene Roman, Chief Technology Officer, OpenText. “Dynamic case management is the kind of technology customers are moving to and it ties together the strengths we're building in our ECM and BPM portfolios.”

Top BPM provider for Microsoft ecosystem

Global 360, like OpenText and Metastorm, is known for its BPM solutions for Microsoft customers. Global 360 is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and is part of the Microsoft SharePoint ISV Partner Advisory Council, which provides guidance and feedback for SharePoint product strategy.

Global 360 was also recently honoured with two Microsoft Partner of the Year awards, including ISV Partner of the Year. The combined expertise, and mix of process and content solutions that integrate with Microsoft, continue to add to OpenText's position as a leading Microsoft partner and a key provider of solutions that support and extend SharePoint and other Microsoft offerings.

"With its strategic emphasis on content, process and dynamic case management, plus its strong Microsoft relationship, OpenText is a great fit for our customers and our team," concluded Steve Russell, Global 360's Senior Vice-President, Research & Development and CTO. "Customers can expect us to continue to deliver our leading solutions, plus gain even greater value through access to an expanded solutions portfolio and the support of a much larger company."

According to OpenText CTO Roman, with the strong portfolios of both Global 360 and Metastorm, OpenText is committed to the current product roadmaps of both companies, and plans to continue to support products from both companies. On Monday, OpenText announced that Metastorm released a major new version of its BPM software, as well as other new solutions.

For further information, please contact Rob Shaw: tel +27 83 626-3811, fax +27 86 646-4178, e-mail rshaw@opentext.com.

OpenText

OpenText, the pre-eminent enterprise content management software, helps organisations manage and gain the true value of their business content. OpenText brings two decades of expertise supporting 50 million users in 114 countries. Working with our customers and partners, we bring together leading Content Experts to help organisations capture and preserve corporate memory, increase brand equity, automate processes, mitigate risk, manage compliance and improve competitiveness.

In southern Africa, OpenText's business partners are Business Connexion, Datacentrix, eTechnologies, iFuture Consulting, NokusaEI and SAP Africa; and its customer base includes organisations from across both the private and public sectors such as ABSA, Anglo Platinum, BMW, Department of Environmental Affairs, Department of Tourism, Distell, Engen, Exxaro Resources, Mittal Steel, Nedbank, Office of the President, Provincial Government of the Western Cape, SABMiller, Sasol, Standard Bank, Telkom SA and Toyota.

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