Digital River Takes on ESD

Acquires Metatec's electronic software distribution business, eyes enterprise software market

Minneapolis, MN  January 24, 2003  Digital River Inc., a global e-commerce outsource provider, this week announced that it has acquired certain assets and liabilities of Metatec International Inc.'s electronic software distribution (ESD) business.

According to the provider, it will use Metatec's ESD technology platform to offer expanded software distribution and entitlement management capabilities as a part of its e-commerce system.

"With our acquisition of Metatec's ESD business, we plan to extend our target market by moving into the enterprise software market," said Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO. "By integrating Metatec's platform, we can offer large publishers a solution for electronic management, maintenance and distribution of software for enterprise licensees."

Digital River said that with the ESD engine, enterprise software publishers now will be able to use catalog and content management, as well as personalized customer-facing portals, to service their corporate licensees.

Under the terms of the agreement, Digital River acquired certain assets and liabilities associated with Metatec's ESD business in exchange for approximately $1.1 million in cash and notes. The agreement also provides Metatec the opportunity for an additional earn-out based on Digital River achieving certain revenue metrics related to the ESD business over the course of the 12 months following the closing of the acquisition. As part of its agreement with Metatec, Digital River acquired Metatec's contracts with ESD clients. These clients include software and service providers, such as TIBCO Software Inc., i2 Technologies Inc. and NetManage Inc.

Latest