$17M Deal Frees Clarus From ERP Market

With enterprise resource planning sales waning over the lastyear, business application vendor Clarus Corp. has decided to bail out of the market completely and focus exclusively on its business-to-business E-commerce offerings.

Clarus inked a deal yesterday to sell its accounting and human resources applications business to Geac Computer Corp. for $17 million. The transaction, which is pending regulatory and Clarus shareholder approval, is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Clarus Corp., which has 300 customers and had revenue of more than $40 million last year, says it based the decision on rapid growth of its E-commerce products business, namely its Web-based procurement application. The company says the market for Internet applications requires a different strategy from that of the ERP market in terms of technology, channels, and operational style.

The sale to Geac, which covers all of Clarus' ERP assets and 150 employees, is the latest in a string of Geac ERP acquisitions. The company acquired U.K.-based JBA last month and Dun & Bradstreet Software several years ago. Geac says the latest deal reinforces its consolidation strategy to capture the business of midsize companies.