Enterprise application specialist
Merant International
announced Tuesday that it has agreed to purchase Raleigh, NC-based
The Marathon Group,
an Internet professional services firm.
Merant, a global organisation quoted on the London Stock Exchange
(MRN) and Nasdaq (MRNT), says the acquisition is a fundamental
part of its strategy to help its customers “e-enable” their
enterprises.
Merant will pay $15 million in cash to Marathon shareholders.
However, the deal has not been finalised, and is still subject
to “certain closing conditions,” according to the parties concerned.
“The Marathon team clearly understands how the Internet can be
used to create business value,” said Gary Greenfield, Merant’s
president and chief executive officer.
“With an impressive customer base and the potential capability
to scale internationally, we felt the company was a good fit to
augment Merant’s strategy to provide a full range of enterprise
solutions to our customers.”
Recent projects by The Marathon Group include an extranet for
Wrangler, an intranet for Glaxo Wellcome and two sites for
Healthtex — a business-to-business site at
www.healthtexBtoB.com
and a business-to-consumer site at
www.healthtex.com.
If the deal goes through, Marathon will become the major part
of Merant Interactive Services, a new arm of Merant Consulting,
previously formed to deliver e-commerce, Internet, intranet and
extranet solutions.