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CedAr acquires OpenAccounts plc

1st Jun 2005
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Combined company will be a new leader in the UK Applications Software market for services industries enterprises

June 1 2004 - CedAr today announced that it has successfully concluded discussions to acquire OpenAccounts plc. The two companies will continue to trade under their respective names while teams are established to look at branding and integration going forward. The merged company creates a leader in the UK Applications Software market for mid-sized and large services enterprises.

Combined, the company will employ more than 400 staff, with more than 1,200 services industry customers and annual revenues of approximately £45million. With this move it becomes the third largest Financial Management Systems (FMS) vendor in the UK*, and the largest vendor in the FMS market for both services and mid-market enterprises.

The company's product lines include a broad range of products for Financial Management, Procurement, Human Resources and Business Intelligence. Its customers span a broad range of services industries with an almost equal split between Government Services and the Private Sector.

Mark Thompson, Managing Director of CedAr, comments:
'Unlike most of the consolidation activity we've seen recently in the Enterprise Application market, the merging of OpenAccounts and CedAr makes genuine sense from the customers' perspective. Not only will we continue to invest in and support both companies' product lines, we will also deliver an expanding range of new common add-on products to our customers. The market has lacked a leader whose sole focus is on the services sector, which is remarkable when you bear in mind this is where 70% of UK GDP originates.'

Dave Cook, Managing Director of OpenAccounts, says:
'During the past few months, we've worked closely with Mark (Thompson) and his team to quantify the benefits and potential synergies of this acquisition. The clear conclusion was this would be a winning deal for customers and staff. For example, there are many products each company has that can add value to the other's financial systems customers; OpenAccounts eBIS Exchange technology is exactly what Cedar' was looking for as a business process engine. Likewise, the new Cedar eHRM product will fill a key gap in OpenAccounts product range. This will be great news for both sets of customers. Equally, employees are going to benefit from a wider set of opportunities within an enlarged company which management believe is well placed to grow at rates well in excess of the industry norm'

(* Based on market share data supplied by Gartner Dataquest; 'The UK Financial Systems Market by License Revenue by Vendor 2002' dated August 2003).

About CedAr
CedAr provides financial, eProcurement, HR, Payroll and performance management solutions that deliver increased performance and offers a direct and measurable financial return on investment. CedAr has a customer base of more than 500 organisations in both the public and private sector. For more information, please visit www.cedar.com

About OpenAccounts
OpenAccounts' accounting software is installed in over 730 customer sites worldwide. OpenAccounts' "best of breed" philosophy focuses on strength in back office transaction processing and integration with best of breed third party applications. It also adds value to the finance function with 'extended finance', making practical use of e-business technology to automate standard processes and workflow, not only within finance, but providing self-service access and information delivery across the entire organisation and to customers and suppliers. The product is extremely scalable and, as such, OpenAccounts is equally suitable for the smaller less-sophisticated or departmental end user as with the larger more demanding corporate or head office user. OpenAccounts' was awarded the Accountancy Age Award in November 2003 for Best Enterprise Package due to their customer focus and solid product research and development.

For further press information:
Citigate Dewe Rogerson, 01604 232223 Natalie Prichard/Alex Bell
[email protected]

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