TECHNOLOGY : State of the Art, Platinum Software Announce Accounting Software Deals

Two competitors in Orange County’s accounting software industry announced acquisitions on Monday.

State of the Art Inc. in Irvine said it has signed a letter of intent to acquire the Accountant Inc. product line, an entry-level accounting program for the Macintosh computer, from Softsync Inc.

The move is aimed at increasing State of the Art’s presence among small businesses. State of the Art will move 15 of Accountant Inc.’s employees from Coral Gables, Fla., to Irvine.

Overall, State of the Art expects to employ 50 people in the Accountant Inc. unit, in addition to its current 180-person work force. The division will be run by David Reis, general manager of Accountant Inc.

Separately, Platinum Software Corp. said Monday that it has acquired Systems Engineering Associates Ltd., one of the software developers for Platinum’s line of accounting software.

Platinum said the acquisition of the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., company will help it develop custom applications for its SeQuel to Platinum line of accounting software for large corporations. The deal adds 17 employees to Platinum’s 230-person work force.

Neither company disclosed terms.