Pervasive Bids For Integration HelpPervasive Bids For Integration Help

In a cash and stock deal valued at $51.7 million, Pervasive Software Inc. is acquiring Data Junction Corp., a privately held developer of data and application integration software. Pervasive will use the acquisition to create a new integration products business unit.

Enterprise information integration, known as EII, is a hot area, as businesses struggle to link disparate information sources in order to improve operations, business intelligence, and corporate governance. Two weeks ago, reporting-software vendor Actuate Corp. struck a deal to acquire Nimble Technology Inc., another EII software vendor.

Data Junction's EII, application-integration, and data-transformation tools will allow Pervasive to assemble a broader product line. Pervasive's current product line includes the Pervasive.SQL database around which corporate developers and software vendors build applications, the Data Exchange data replication software, and the AuditMaster transaction-intelligence and data-monitoring software. The combined companies will have a customer base of more than 35,000.

"Data Junction's product line is very complementary to the Pervasive customer base," says David Sikora, Pervasive's president and CEO. The two companies already have a technology relationship and little development work needs to be done to integrate their product lines, he says.

Data Junction had $14 million in sales in its recently completed fiscal 2003. Customers include Automatic Data Processing, J.P. Morgan Chase, and WebMD, as well as systems integrator EDS.

To acquire Data Junction, Pervasive is offering $22.1 million in cash and 5 million shares of Pervasive stock in a cash and stock deal, giving the deal a total value of $51.7 million. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, but it's still subject to approval by shareholders of both companies and to regulatory approval. They expect to complete the acquisition during the fourth quarter. Data Junction president Michael Hoskins will head up Pervasive's new integration business unit.