SAN FRANCISCO - Business Objects SA has agreed to acquire Crystal Decisions in a US$820 million cash and stock deal that will create a one-stop shop for business intelligence software products, the companies said Friday.
"The combined company will be number one in each of the main markets it serves," Business Objects Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bernard Liautaud said on a conference call. Business Objects specializes in ad hoc querying, reporting and analysis tools, while Crystal Decisions focuses on enterprise reporting.
With little overlap in the product lines, both companies' offerings will continue to be supported after the takeover and the combined sales team will sell all products, Liautaud said. Plans were in place at both Business Objects and Crystal Decisions to enter each other's market in the future, but those plans will be cancelled, he said.
"Today the products have little overlap, but in the long term both product teams have plans to overlap each other. We will reorganize the research and development energies to . . . drive them to new products in new areas of business intelligence that have potential," Liautaud said.
Crystal Decisions President and CEO Jon Judge said combining his company with Business Objects accomplishes "almost every strategic imperative" Crystal Decisions had. "This is the defining moment for the business intelligence industry," he said on the conference call.
Under the terms of the agreement, Business Objects will issue 26.5 million new shares, which will represent about 29 percent of the combined company's shares. In addition Crystal Decisions owners will receive US$300 million in cash, the companies said in a statement.
The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter and subject to customary conditions such as shareholder and regulatory approval, should also result in about $25 million in cost savings next year as a result of synergies, the companies said in a statement.
Business Objects, with dual headquarters in San Jose, California, and Paris, is seen by Gartner Inc. analysts as the business intelligence market bellwether. Crystal Decisions, in Palo Alto, California, is also seen as a strong vendor, according to Gartner research notes published earlier this year.
Business Objects also announced preliminary results on Friday for the second quarter, ended June 30. The company expects revenue to be in the range of $127 million to $129 million, and earnings per share to be between $0.17 and $0.18.
Get the independent advice and expertise you need to support a virtual workforce.
The increase in Linux popularity has increased the frequency and sophistication of malware attacks. Read this 2 page white paper now to learn how you can protect your Linux environment with real-time protection that is certified by all major Linux vendors.
Download now »
Ensuring acceptable application delivery will become even more difficult over the next few years. As a result, IT organizations need to ensure that the approach that they take to resolving the current application delivery challenges can scale to support the emerging challenges. This handbook elaborates on the key tasks associated with planning, optimization, management and control and provides decision criteria to help IT organizations choose appropriate solutions.
Download now »
A common misconception is that mid-range storage requirements are dramatically different than that of a larger enterprise. Mid-range storage users may require less capacity, but they have similar functionality and management requirements. This ESG paper examines mid-range storage needs and reviews a new solution that adjusts size while retaining value, performance and functionality.
Download now »
Like any valuable resource, IT is a terrible thing to waste. But by applying the same lean techniques that have been used to streamline manufacturing processes, IT departments can reduce costs, improve performance and better manage resources.
Download now! »
Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy for CA's Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit, explains why difficult economic times drive the need for simplified management capabilities and advanced automation tools.
Listen now! »
According to a recent study CA conducted with 300 CIOs and top IT executives, 64 percent of respondents say they've already invested in virtualization, and the other 36 percent reported that they plan to invest in virtualization.
Download now! »
In this video learn about process automation in a virtualized world. How CA and VMware are enabling enterprise datacenter automation.
View now! »
Recommend This
