Rival warns OpenAccounts to maintain its focus

Rival warns OpenAccounts to maintain its focus

The acquisition of Accountancy Age award-winner OpenAccounts by CedAr has led one of its competitors to warn of the deal's potential pitfalls.

Link: CedAr and OpenAccounts in software merger

David Turner, marketing manager of rival accounting software company CODA, warned that OpenAccounts’ management team should be careful to keep its focus in the wake of its aquisition.

‘OpenAccounts is seen as a strong performer, but relatively small. This has kept it well-focused and it has a great team of people behind it, but now it’s increased in scale,’ said Turner.

CODA also said of CedAr’s approach to consolidation. ‘CODA buys to complement, we don’t buy competing products,’ Taylor said.

The acquisition, which has created a company with 1,200 customers and £45m in licence sales, is yet another step consolidation in the accounting software industry.

CODA also made a high-profile purchase of SquareSum, the software company providing accounting products to SMEs, in December 2002.

CedAr managing director Mark Thompson defended the acquisition, saying the company purchased Open-Accounts to improve its position in the commercial sector. CedAr is traditionally known for its strong public sector client base. ‘Compare OpenAccounts with our current products. There is very little overlap. We’re in totally different markets,’ he said.

Dave Cook, managing director of OpenAccounts, welcomed the acquisition.

‘There’s a limit to how far you can grow organically, so to continue our growth we needed to work with another company. CedAr’s depth and breadth will help us to speed along our own developments,’ he said.

Thompson added: ‘OpenAccounts’ product is moving dramatically upmarket, because its customers are getting bigger. Because of the size of CedAr’s customer base, we have the expertise to take it to the next level. We have staff who are used to dealing with larger clients.’

The acquisition will make the new organisation a ‘serious competitor’ in the accounting software mid-market, according to Cook, rivalling the likes of CODA, Agresso and Oracle.

– For more on the acquisition, go to www.accountancyage.com/news/1137233.

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