Well, that was quick. Seems the idea of Private Equity Group (PEG)-funded takeover shops based on Microsoft technology (MS-PEG, get it?) was so compelling that its two leading practicioners have rushed into each other's arms. Technically, it's Made2Manage (Capri, DTR, ADS, Cimnet, AXIS, Encompix, and most recently Onyx) who is acquiring Intuitive (SupplyWorks, Relevant/INFIMACS).Also disappointingly, this breaks M2M's streak of acquiring vendors with the letter X in the name.
So we're down to one MS-PEGGY. Sigh. I had such hopes for the acronym. I guess this just begs the question - who will be M2M's Kermit? Is Infor still hungry?
This all stopped making sense for customers a long time ago. Now it's clearly down to the economics of milking revenue streams and eliminating overhead - which is a decidedly short-term proposition, with an eye toward a financial exit. So I repeat, it begs the question: As customers get more and more worried, and defect to (ahem) more compelling options from the world of open source, who's going to buy these things after the attrition?
Update: Here's Managing Automation on the deal, which suggests the purchase price was somewhere in the $40 millions, nearly 4x revenue.
