New Lawson Launches as a Compelling Alternative to ‘Big Two’ in Global ERP Market
Merged Company to Focus on Simplifying Use of ERP Applications
ST. PAUL, Minn., and STOCKHOLM, Sweden (May 03, 2006) – Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) (SSE: LWSN) and Intentia International officially began operating as one company today, vowing to radically simplify the process of developing, deploying, maintaining and using ERP applications. Lawson will deliver a broad portfolio of enterprise applications in 20 languages to more than 4,000 customers in more than 40 countries.
Lawson and Intentia completed their combination last week, when more than 97 percent of Intentia’s share- and warrant-holders accepted Lawson’s offer for newly issued shares of Lawson common stock. The combined entity will retain the name of Lawson Software. The company’s new brand and www.lawson.com also debuted today.
The combination has brought together two of the industry’s strongest mid-market players. Lawson can now effectively serve manufacturing, distribution and services industries across the globe and its revenues will closely mirror the global ERP marketplace, with 45 percent coming from North America, 45 percent from Europe and the remainder from Asia-Pacific. Total combined revenues are approximately $750 million.
“The market needs a strong, viable vendor that can offer simplicity over the complexity of the two large ERP vendors, said Lawson President and CEO Harry Debes. “The market wants choice, and we expect to establish ourselves as the preferred ERP provider for companies that want to streamline business processes and run their operations more effectively. Just as importantly, we intend to be a company that is simple to do business with, and we intend to deliver on our promises.
Debes said the company now begins a period of integration that builds on months of prior planning. Lawson and Intentia used the pre-merger period to finalize integration plans and improve overall operating effectiveness within both organizations.
A key part of Lawson’s integration plans is ensuring continuity – serving customers without interruption and protecting their long-term investments. This means existing customers will work with the same account executives, the same consultants, and the same support center contacts. Regional management will also be little changed, and Lawson promises a 24-hour guaranteed response to any customer inquiry made to any Lawson employee.
Similarly, Lawson will continue to maintain two separate product lines, known as Lawson M3 and Lawson S3. Lawson M3 applications are designed for the “make, move, maintain markets traditionally addressed by Intentia. These markets include fashion and apparel, food and beverage, Distribution and asset-intensive industries. The applications include enterprise management, supplier relationship management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, value chain collaboration, enterprise performance management and workplace management.
The Lawson S3 applications are designed for the “staff, source, serve markets Lawson historically addressed. These markets include healthcare, retail, local government, K-12 education and banking and insurance. The Lawson S3 applications include human capital management, enterprise financial management, supply chain management and enterprise performance management.
The new company is targeting three specific new license revenue opportunities created by the merger. First, Lawson believes there is an opportunity to significantly increase the penetration of the Lawson M3 product line into the U.S. market, where it currently has a much smaller share than in Europe. Second, Lawson intends to offer its human capital management suite to new and existing customers in the European and Asian markets. Today, nearly all HCM revenue is derived from North America. Third, the company expects to provide an enterprise asset management suite to its Lawson S3 customers to track both human and physical assets, such as medical equipment.
Both the Lawson S3 and Lawson M3 product lines are built on industry-standard Java-based technology, and both will share the same Lawson Enterprise Performance Management suite. The company is also committed to leveraging existing initiatives to rapidly develop and deploy adaptable applications for service-oriented architectures (SOA).
Source: Lawson
