February 16, 2001 -- E-business platform provider IONA Technologies has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Netfish Technologies, a XML-based, B2B integration service. The total consideration is 5.5 million shares of IONA common stock, approximately $270 million, based on IONA's closing price of $49.0625 per share on February 14, 2001. This acquisition will be accounted for as a purchase. The transaction is subject to the approval of shareholders of both companies, as well as customary regulatory and other closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second quarter.
IONA plans for the acquisition of Netfish to play a critical role in IONA's Total Business Integration strategy. IONA's enterprise integration offerings enable companies to develop and integrate software applications from the mainframe to the Web. Netfish Technologies' XML-based B2Bi solutions enable companies to extend enterprise applications and business processes securely over the Internet to establish B2B connections with partners, customers and suppliers.
IONA's customers that are connecting enterprise applications and extending them to partners and suppliers are managing some of the largest application integration projects in the world, said Barry Morris, IONA's CEO. Many of these customers express the desire to work with one vendor that can offer a single e-business platform to address all of their needs. The combination of IONA's and Netfish's products will meet these needs and establish IONA as the only e-business platform vendor with a single, end-to-end solution.
The combination of IONA and Netfish will provide customers with benefits that extend far beyond other offerings in the market, said Ravi Iyer, CEO of Netfish. Because the technologies are so complementary, it provides customers with a comprehensive solution for all of their e-business needs. The synergies created through this combination are compelling not only for our customers but also for our employees.
Netfish's main product offering is the Netfish XDI Product Suite, a B2B integration platform that tightly integrates diverse business systems and controls to manage cross-enterprise information exchange. The XDI Product Suite automates shared business processes in a workflow-driven, collaborative and real-time fashion, and provides services such as security, exception handling and acknowledgements.
Netfish's XDI system has been built from the ground up using open standards such as Java and XML. It is complementary to, and will be further integrated into, the IONA Suite to extend the IONA Suite's integration and development capabilities across the Internet, helping organizations create integrated trading alliance connections. The benefits of B2B process integration range from reduced inventories, cycle times and product costs, to increased data accuracy and customer satisfaction.