Date:05/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/05/stories/2005080501840400.htm

Back SumTotal buys Pathlore for $48 m

Our Bureau

Mr Sudheer Koneru, Senior Vice-President of SumTotal Systems Inc, at a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday.— Mohammed Yousuf

Hyderabad , Aug. 4

SUMTOTAL Systems Inc, a Nasdaq-listed learning technology solutions provider, has announced the acquisition of Pathlore Software Corporation for approximately $48 million.

The acquisition is expected to be concluded within three months. Of the $48-million purchase deal, $29 million would be in cash transaction complemented by 4 million shares of SumTotal common stock.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the Senior Vice-President, International Operations, Mr Sudheer Koneru, said that the combination creates industry's largest learning technology provider with over 1,500 customers. Traditionally, SumTotal has been focussed on large enterprises, and Pathlore offers services to mid-market segment. This compliments well for the company product offering.

Quoting independent research data, Mr Koneru said the merger reinforces SumTotal's position as the largest software provider in the emerging learning and performance management market, and is expected to provide its collective customers even greater resources for support and product innovation. The Pathlore customer base includes over 100 healthcare organisations, as well as Government agencies in 38 of the 50 States in the US. The acquisition would help increased R&D capacity to bring new innovations to market more rapidly and economically.

The learning management software market is estimated at about Rs 450 crore where SumTotal has 23 per cent share. With Pathlore, its market share is set to further increase. Many enterprise resource planning vendors, including Oracle, SAP are eyeing the learning management market. Referring to the growth for learning management software across verticals, deployed by large systems integrators, Mr Koneru said in India too, particularly IT sector is taking to these solutions. During the first half this year, SumTotal logged revenues of $32.6 million.