Baan buy-out

Backed by some $14 billion in investment capital, Invensys has agreed to sell Baan, known for its enterprise application solutions for industrial enterprises, to an investment group consisting of Cerberus Capital Management and General Atlantic Partners, said to be two of the world’s leading private investment firms. The investment group plans to employ a growth oriented, long-term strategy to the Baan business.

The group, which also owns SSA Global Technologies, intends to combine Baan with SSA GT. SSA GT provides enterprise solutions for process manufacturing, discrete manufacturing, consumer, services and public companies worldwide. With nearly $600 million in combined revenues, of which $160 million represents license fees for the combined products, and in excess of 16,500 customers, the new company will have the world’s largest installed base in manufacturing. The group says that key to the growth strategy will be the total iBaan suite and the complete set of product offerings of the combined organization. Baan will operate globally as the Baan division of the combined entity with dedicated sales, marketing, development, consulting, and support.

Baan reports that over the past three years Baan has made significant investment in its solution offerings including its next generation Enterprise Backbone, code-named “Gemini,” and its innovative integration platform, OpenWorldX. Gemini will be launched this fall at Baan World User Conferences in the United States and Europe, with a launch in Asia Pacific planned for the first half of 2004.