Ashton-Tate to Buy Graphics Firm : Also Plans to Make Minicomputer, Mainframe Products
Ashton-Tate, the third-largest developer of microcomputer software, said Tuesday that it will pay $13 million in cash for a Westport, Conn., firm that makes graphics software.
Additionally, Ashton-Tate will move up into products and services for minicomputers within the next 12 months--and perhaps into products for mainframes within six months after that, according to Edward Esber, president and chief executive. Esber’s comments were made at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday in Century City.
Torrance-based Ashton-Tate, maker of the popular dBase programs, said it signed a letter of intent to buy Decision Resources, a primarily employee-owned company. The deal is expected to close within two months.
Decision Resources’ Master software packages generated about $13 million in sales last year, leading the fragmented, $105-million annual market for graphics software.
Robert Lefkowitz, who tracks the software industry for the market research firm Infocorp, said the acquisition is important not only for Decision Resources’ established product line but also because it gives Ashton-Tate expertise in graphics technology--an increasingly important element of microcomputer software programs.
Decision Resources’ president and co-founder, Sean O’Connor, will continue to head the Westport operations.
Last month, Lotus Development, the No. 1 personal computer software company, completed its acquisition of a graphics software developer, Graphics Communications.
Ashton-Tate, whose dBase programs are the leading sellers among database management programs for personal computers, is expected to announce its first product--a database management program--for Apple Computer’s Macintosh next week.
Esber told shareholders that the company continues to review acquisition opportunities. (It bought the Multimate line of word-processing software last December.) At a press conference after the meeting, Esber said an acquisition would be “one easy way to get into the minicomputer (software) market.”
However, Roy E. Folk, Ashton-Tate executive vice president, said that there are a “variety of options” being considered by the company, including development of programs that would be used in systems in which personal computers are connected to minicomputers. The company’s interest in mainframes also would be in the area of networks that link personal computers to the larger machines, Folk indicated.
