African Legend Indigo acquires the business of Enterprise Solutions

A black-owned IT company, one of only a handful in the country to focus exclusively on enterprise systems solutions, is set to commence trading on 1 July 2003, the day the deal, announced last week between African Legend Technologies (ALT) and MGX, is scheduled to be finalised.

The new company, African Legend Indigo (AL Indigo), will incorporate ALT`s Sun Microsystems division along with the entire operations of MGX Enterprise Solutions. AL Indigo will provide end-to-end solutions based primarily around Sun Microsystems` hardware, Sun ONE (Open Net Environment), and BMC Software`s world-class enterprise systems management offerings. Ed Gassner, the current CEO of MGX Enterprise Solutions, will head this new operation.

African Legend Technologies will own 57.5% of AL Indigo, with the remaining 42.5% held by management and staff. Both ALT and Enterprise Solutions people will be involved in Indigo`s operational activities and management from day one.

Enterprise Solutions is the undisputed South African leader in the Sun ONE space, and one of the top three reseller organisations of Sun hardware in SA, a position that will be boosted following this acquisition. Enterprise Solutions is also the local BMC Software master distributor and this situation will continue under the new arrangement.

"As IT is so critical to the success of key African initiatives such as NEPAD," commented Mashudu Tshivhase, executive chairman of ALT, "the South African ICT industry has to be both strong and representative. ALT therefore establishes companies that fulfil two objectives in that they have to be committed to deliver value to their shareholders and customers and they have to subscribe to the values of the new democratic SA of non-racialism, non-sexist and non-sectarianism."

"African Legend Indigo is perfectly positioned to achieve these objectives," continued Tshivhase. "Strategically, we have acquired a company through partnership with management, with which we have enormous synergy, and most importantly for all stakeholders, the new company will hit the ground running."

"The relationship between the new company and ALT is extremely close," added Gassner. "A strong feeling of trust has evolved between us, and our product offerings dovetail so that there are no competitive areas. The new company will build on the solid strategies and profitable formula established by Enterprise Solutions."

"Our strategy is simple and it works," continued Gassner. "We focus on very few, world-class products, thus ensuring excellent implementation, sales and support of our end-to-end solutions; and we have built up an excellent track record in that market space."

"Now we have ALT as our partner, we will be looking to deliver our solutions into new markets. We will strengthen our presence in the private sector and continue to focus on government and parastatals moving forward and we aim to have 20% of our revenue accruing from the public sector within two years," concluded Gassner. "We also anticipate that 10% of our revenue will derive from beyond our borders as we intensify our focus on particular regions within sub-Saharan Africa."

African Legend Indigo, which will have 112 staff members at its Sandton head office, and 15 in Cape Town, has already defined its employment equity plan for the next three years, and has identified skills transfer a high priority on its agenda.

For further information, please contact Mashudu Tshivhase at telephone (011) 880 0150; fax (011) 880 0160; e-mail Mashudu@africanlegend.co.za, or Ed Gasser at the same numbers.

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