The ink had hardly dried on Extensity acquiring Pegasus when Infor swooped in 31st July and acquired Extensity. Two weeks in and the first wave of job losses has hit Pegasus, taking out 42 heads.
Contrary to rumours, the development team has not been wiped out but chopped back significantly. The Foxpro team has been massacred – but that should be no surprise. Once the dust has settled, Pegasus expects to be left with about 80 staff which will include some coming in from the Infor team.
Sources inside the company tell me that product integration is proceeding apace. While some may see this rationalisation as representing the death of Pegasus, this is not true. The management team is being maintained to operate Pegasus as a stand alone brand but with access to the Infor R&D teams. The idea is to accelerate recent double digit growth, ensure that Pegasus grows its presence, brand and functionality. I’m told there is an SOA play but it is very early days with scant details.
Sources tell me Pegasus remains bullish and is communicating plans to the reseller community in dribs and drabs. Nevertheless, the mood is hardly jovial.
Infor expects revenues in the coming year to be $2.1 billion. That puts Infor on a par with Sage – just about – and ahead of Microsoft. Those same sources tell me that Infor management is on a mission to take on SAP/Oracle. There is a lot of sense in that play for the mid-market. GEAC is a decent brand as is SSA. They have solid analytics in the old Comshare product. Their global reach matches that of the Big Two but more important, they can scale up and down to all ends of the SMB market, with an emphasis on M – a segment with which SAP/Oracle struggle.
As with all consolidators, the trick will be in smoothly integrating existing offerings while displaying serious R&D innovation.
So who’s next? Lawson/Intentia? That would make sense to me.
Technorati Tags: consolidation, extensity, Infor, Lawson, Pegasus
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I just blogged about Pegasus (a brief note) only to realise you have covered it in greater details. There was no mention of 42 heads in the official communication. Damn Foxpro. Welcome SOA!
Well done on getting the scoop Dennis. Ive been working on and off with Pegasus for at least 11 years. Gary Turner is one of life's nice guys so I hope get some long term gains from the early pain.
GT – nice guy? Not sure about this
re: revitalise OII – definately not – you must be joking.
Anon: If you're one of the heads that rolls then you're going to be mightily pissed off. But that's the nature of the M&A beast and sadly, someone has to do the nasty work.
Let's not judge whether OII gets revitalised or absorbed until we see the final outcome of the shakeout. Agreed?
Please explain why it is that 42 "unfortunate" casualties have to go, when it is a profitable company and self sufficient?
I'm sure people will be interested in your comments.
Sorry – but whatever you say does not cut the ice with me, when a perfectly good company that is making a profit has to get rid of over half their R&D team, it just does not make sense. If we was losing x K a day then maybe things should change, BUT the point being is that "we" are not.
And yes, I do have a question mark over my head.
latest scuttlebutt (to be confirmed, as they say) suggests that Systems Union UK will be announcing redundancies on or around Sept 8th.
(That's the SunSystems side, not the Pegasus side)
i heard it was as many a 600 globally from SU
Anon: I don't have the precise information you're asking. You can of course take that up with management – they should have an explanation – even if it doesn't make sense.
Past experience tells me that 'winner takes all.' In this case, Infor has a large portfolio of products and I do know is looking to do 'interesting things' with Pegasus. Note I mentioned SOA. That's a play I'd expect to be kept at R&D centre because it's strategic to the portfolio and it represents a change in direction – as you'd expect in M&A.
This isn't just affecting staff. Manoj (first commenter) was due to talk with the company about access to the API and that had to be put on hold.
Remember also that OII's target market is not exactly growing dramatically in the UK so Infor would be daft not to concentrate on optimising the business as a whole which means concentrating on getting sales where they can – specifically in the spreadsheet tool.
But this is speculation. If I get more insights, you can be sure they'll appear here.
It should not be allowed for companies to make people redundant if the company is making a profit. There should be a law against it. It would stop a lot of the heavy money making companies think twice about buying out other companies. The government should stop it from happening and there would be a lot less people losing their jobs.
Yes, we had an apology from Pegasus and currently attempting to reschedule a meeting sometime in Sept.
Whilst I simpathise with the situation with respect to redundancies (I have experienced it once), I see the consolidation and restructuring as a positive move (all part of standard M&A stuff).
Any move to webservices + SOA must be seen as positive with regards to opening up integration opportunities.
By the way, we are interested in speaking to VARs of Pegasus and others (sorry DH for hijacking your space)! Specially those with integration experience! Can you live with annuities?
Dear Opinionated
There are rules laid down known as TUPE where the employer needs to undertake a full consultation before it makes redudancies. You might find it useful to following the link.
* Sorry, I meant "follow the link".
Nice post John!, quite patronising, re consultation. Enjoy!
Do *you* honestly believe ppl are so innocent and fail to regonise what is going on!
There is far too much nepotism in this business – I think you know what I mean.
Maybe :-
Dennis Howlett
ACR Strategies
Ptda La Font 260
Benitachell, 03726
ES
dahowlett@wanadoo.fr
+34.966494073
Can help you
Just trying to be helpful – not everyone knows about TUPE.
Presume the other comments arent aimed at me as I have nothing to do with Infor or Pegasus.
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