No change for Softline, ACCPAC yet

By Stephen Whitford for Sage Enterprise

Johannesburg, 24 Mar 2004

Softline and ACCPAC's local management structures will remain the same for now and their brands will run side by side, says Phil Branston, Sage director of investor relations.

Branston says Sage is going through a process of restructuring since it acquired Softline in the fourth quarter of last year and completed the deal to buy ACCPAC from Computer Associates for $110 million in February.

"With regards to the local ACCPAC and Softline offices in SA, they will continue as normal as no operational decisions have been made about offices and company structures. When we release our results in May there will be an announcement about the two companies' structures and the reporting avenues they will use," he says.

However, commenting on the situation after the deal was completed, Sage CEO Paul Walker said the aim would be ultimately to integrate the ACCPAC businesses into Sage, which in SA is clearly the Softline operation.

"One of the things that appealed to us about Softline was that management had made a number of acquisitions. We think they have the management bandwidth to help us integrate these ACCPAC businesses," he said.

Commenting on ACCPAC and Softline's products, Branston says Sage believes branding is important and there will be no dramatic changes to the brands, although some activities may be merged in the future.

"Both companies' products are standalone products and Sage will run them side by side to provide the customer with greater product choice instead of integrating them into a few core products. The customer prefers localised products with their own strong brands and offerings," he says.

Added to this, both companies have their own channels to which they distribute and generate new leads, Branston says. These will continue to operate as before.