Almost three years after the transaction whereby it acquired the Romanian-made antivirus product RAV, the world''s largest software developer Microsoft has acquired another Romanian company.
Software developer United Management Technologies Romania SRL was acquired by Microsoft in a packaged deal with its US-based parent company, United Management Technologies (UMT), headquartered in New York. The purpose of this deal involved the purchase of a software solution held by the American company yet developed exclusively by the Romanian branch over the last six years.
The officials of the two companies did not reveal the value of the contract.
The deal was completed last week, after talks that lasted for more than one year. The announcement was made in Seattle by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft''s chief executive. "We''re excited because acquiring UMT will help us meet customers'' needs for deep portfolio management capabilities," said Steve Ballmer. "By combining our software and expertise, we will also create a new range of solution development software for customers and partners."
Market research company Gartner says that UMT is one of the leaders in its respective line of business, with its archrival being the US-based Prosight.
"The software developed by UMT Romania is a consulting application for project portfolio management, a field Microsoft wanted to expand into," Catalin Olteanu, 28, the former general manager of the UMT branch in Romania told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
Once the transaction was completed, Olteanu became a Microsoft employee. He will be leaving for Redmond, near Seattle, where Microsoft is headquartered, in order to help with the integration of this software into Microsoft''s products.
UMT Romania had about 40 employees. "A significant part" of them are to leave for Redmond to work on the implementation of the new software, Olteanu said, who would be coordinating this team himself. He signed an employment contract with Microsoft for an indefinite period of time and will emigrate to the US along with his wife.
UMT Romania did not have any domestic clients. The software solution developed here is purchased only by large and very large companies, Olteanu explained. "Project portfolio management is a more complex activity than project management. It is only aimed at top management that has to manage and make decisions about a conglomerate of projects." UMT''s customers included the top five banks in terms of size in the US, Olteanu said.
The software purchased by Microsoft will come out on the market in a matter of weeks and will be called Microsoft Portfolio Management. The sale price will probably be similar to the current Microsoft product (Microsoft Project), several thousand dollars for the server application and several hundred dollars for the client application, Olteanu explained. Microsoft may integrate the new software into the Microsoft Project product in the future, which will generate more than 700 million-dollar revenues for Bill Gates'' company this fiscal year.
mihai.musatoiu@zf.ro
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