Objective acquires SaaS provider in $6.6m deal

Peter Dinham
Monday, 20 April 2009 09:23

Business IT - Technology

Enterprise content management company, Objective Corporation has announced the acquisition of UK software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Limehouse Software in a deal which Objective says will help it to accelerate its growth in the public sector market.

The deal has cost Objective an initial $6.65 million but it could pay out anything up to $3 million more through an additional performance-based earn-out which is contingent on achieving FY 2010 benchmark results.     
    
Objective CEO, Tony Walls, said today Objective (ASX:OCL) had acquired 100 percent of the issued capital of Limehouse whose full year revenues to 30 June 2009 are expected to be in the range of $6.3m to $7.4m.

“The acquisition is expected to be earnings per share positive and will be funded from
existing cash reserves and new facilities,” Walls said.

Walls also maintained that the acquisition of Limehouse provided “an excellent opportunity to accelerate Objective’s growth”, and, he said, the purchase was in line with Objective’s long-term strategy of combining organic growth with strategic acquisitions “to extend our geographic and vertical market leadership.”

“Of further strategic importance, Limehouse has a proven and profitable software-as-a-service model, completely hosted in the cloud. This is the first of many solutions Objective will deliver via this model.”

According to Walls, the acquisition extends Objective’s market share and capability in the public sector market where, he said, Limehouse products helped customers improve the efficiency of their operations and record keeping obligations.

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