Wolters Kluwer acquires Twinfield

Surprise, surprise. According to the blurbs:

Through this acquisition, Wolters Kluwer expands and complements its existing offering of advanced software solutions for accountants and finance professionals in SMEs in all the western European markets it serves. Twinfield will become part of the European activities of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, the global market leader in tax, accounting and audit solutions and services.

But is it a surprise? The financial markets have been waiting to see if there would be any acquisition in this space. Curiously enough, Twinfield is a company that was under discussion between myself and another vendor yesterday. At the time I said that while they have a great solution, the company had not quite committed itself to the UK in the way I would have liked to see. That changes as of now with Wolters acquisition.

The acquisition should mean that Wolters puts both development and marketing muscle behind the solution, seeing it as complementary to its existing portfolio of practice solutions that include Viztopia and the old CCH solutions. It should also mean that Twinfield is better placed to cross sell in territories where its has been more difficult due to understandably open questions around vendor viability.

So – congratulations to André, Bert and the team. Onwards to the next phase…

Update: co-founder André Kwakernaat gives his personal view