Actuate Buys Performance Management Software Firm

In a bid to improve its dashboard tools and scorecarding capabilities, Actuate acquired Toronto-based performancesoft in an all-cash transaction, the business intelligence vendor said after market close Friday.

Actuate, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based maker of enterprise-level reporting tools, also hopes the acquisition will help it deliver performance management capabilities more broadly within businesses.

Actuate paid $16.5 million up front for privately held performancesoft, with an additional amount of up to $13.5 million to be paid based on achievement of undisclosed revenue and operating margin goals in 2006. Excluding various non-recurring costs, Actuate expects the purchase to be accretive to its earnings by the fourth quarter of this year.

"Dashboards and scorecards are the preferred applications to deliver executive-level information to manage corporate performance," said Actuate CEO Pete Cittadini in a prepared statement. "However, to truly achieve breakthrough corporate performance, companies must take performance management beyond the executive suite and the finance department."

Performancesoft's current customers include Bombardier, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Honeywell, Verizon, the U.S. Navy and New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services.