BVRP Eyes Utilities With VCOM Buy

BVRP Software today announced that it had entered into an agreement to
acquire San Jose, Calif.-based V Communications (VCOM) in a deal that could be worth
as much as $13.5 million.

Under the terms of the deal, BVRP will pay VCOM $8.5 million in
shares and cash, with an additional amount being contingent on targets being met
over the next year, which could add up to $5 million to the total value of
the deal.

All of VCOM’s employees will transfer
to the headquarters of BVRP’s Avanquest Software Publishing USA
facility in San Mateo, Calif. Christina Seelye, Avanquest’s
president, will run the U.S. operations.

VCOM produces a number of PC utilities, including
Fix-It Utilities, Partition Commander PowerDesk, Web Easy and SystemSuite.
The VCOM acquisition gives BVRP and its newly re-organized utilities division a
solid line-up of applications with which to compete against the established
players in the space, according to BVRP.

“We’re looking to eke out some more share from Symantec and McAfee,” Seelye
told internetnews.com. “Our goal overall is to reach 20 percent market share in the utility category.”

As part of the announcement, BVRP also said it was
restructuring its business into four product divisions to develop mobility,
productivity and utility software products.

“We’re taking the opportunity to create divisions that are focused on generating
market share with these products at a global level,” Seelye said. She added that
the acquisition provided the impetus to put a focus on products and is a good
time to nail down a corporate reorganization.

“In creating the divisions, what we’re trying to do is put high-level
managers in place to focus on what we need to do from a product standpoint
to really get the products where they need to be in all global
territories and channels,” she said.

BVRP’s mobile products in particular have been gaining wider global market
presence lately. The company
recently began
getting its Mobile PhoneTools content synchronization application distributed in Japan,
thanks to cell phone vendor Motorola.

BVRP said it posted annual sales of $74 million for 2004 and expects
2004 operating profits to exceed 11 percent. VCOM sales have gone
from $5.5 million in 2002 to approximately $8.3 million in 2004.
BVRP expects an additional $9 million to $10 million in revenues for 2005 as a result of the acquisition.