Platinum Software Purchases Publisher

Platinum Software Corp. said Monday that it has purchased a publisher of accounting software for the Australian and New Zealand markets. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Platinum, based in Irvine, specializes in software for financial operations and manufacturing processes. The company raised about $20 million with its initial public stock offering in October.

The acquisition of New Zealand’s Automation One is the 8-year-old company’s second purchase since then. In December, Platinum bought Systems Engineering Assn., a small Bloomington Hills, Mich., firm that helped it develop its proprietary accounting software.

Automation One, founded in 1983, provides financial management and accounting software for small to mid-size companies across New Zealand and Australia. The company, which employs 75, has more than 10,000 customers serviced by a network of offices in both countries.

Platinum, with about 250 employees, markets its products to more than 40,000 customers worldwide.

Platinum has not yet completed a full year as a publicly traded company. For the first nine months of its 1993 fiscal year, the company reported a profit of $1.8 million on sales of $22.9 million.