MYOB sells US business, leaves China

by Stephen Withers

Friday, 28 November 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! In a move that signals a return of MYOB to its core operations, the accounting software company has divested itself of its US business and pulled out of China after a fruitless three years. MYOB has sold its US operations including the development of its Mac accounting software to its local distributor, Acclivity. Under the terms of the agreement, Acclivity has acquired MYOB US and its Mac and PC development team. MYOB also announced that it would completely withdraw from mainland China "in the light of [presumably poor] progress to date", three years after opening its operations there. The company will largely focus its Asian efforts on Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of Asia, "with a specific drive to profitably across the region." MYOB officials said the overall effect of divesting its US interests would "align the predominantly US based Mac sales with a US based development team and move MYOB's financial commitment to this platform from a fixed annual development cost denominated in USD to a local currency, royalty stream paid on sales revenue from the regions." CEO Tim Read said "In challenging economic circumstances, we believe it is prudent to place more effort and attention on markets where the company’s position is established and where it can generate a profit." Acclivity will continue to develop FirstEdge, AccountEdge and AccountEdge Network Edition for the global market, and the MYOB family of Windows products for the US market. MYOB will continue to republish the Mac products in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. "There will be no customer disruption," said Tom Nash, managing partner at Acclivity. "This deal also allows us the flexibility to enter markets outside of the US," he added. "We're now free to explore how we will bring AccountEdge back to Canada. By popular demand, I might add." (Nash previously served as the original general manager of MYOB's Canadian operation.) What's the likely effect on MYOB's financials? Please read on. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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