Active Delivers Widest Range of Event Management Solutions for Organizations of All Sizes

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Active Network, Inc. (Active), a leading provider of application services technology and marketing solutions for community service and participatory sports organizations, today announced that it has acquired RegOnline and WingateWeb, two leaders in the event management software industry. These acquisitions, along with the company’s purchase of Thriva LLC last year, make Active the largest provider of products and services to streamline online event registration and operations for corporations, associations and independent event planners.

RegOnline, based in Boulder, Colo., has more than 60 employees and is a leader in the event registration industry. More than 11,000 meeting and event planners have chosen RegOnline’s simple and flexible online registration services, which can be set up quickly and easily with no start-up or annual costs. Customers include Sony, Hitachi, Raymond James Financial, Burger King and General Mills to name a few.

WingateWeb provides enterprise software solutions to Fortune 500 companies in the IT, medical and financial industries. Its web-based products successfully manage events of up to 20,000 attendees with hundreds of breakout sessions, as well as operations for organizations that hold thousands of events per year. Many of the largest technology companies in the world use WingateWeb’s technology to streamline their customer conferences and other internal events. Based in Lindon, Utah, the company has more than 85 employees and doubled the size of its business in 2007.

“The event management market has been fragmented with numerous small companies offering individual packages. The Active Network is now the de facto leader in this space,” said Alex Barnetson, senior vice president, The Active Network, Inc. “With the acquisitions of RegOnline and WingateWeb, Active can now provide corporations and event planners of all sizes with the most comprehensive selection of event management technology.”

The Active Network provides technology and marketing solutions for event organizers, community organizations and consumer brands that enable and encourage participation. As a result of the acquisitions, RegOnline and WingateWeb customers will have access to a full range of value-added services including global operations, a world-class call center, extensive development resources and marketing expertise. RegOnline and WingateWeb will continue to operate out of their respective offices.

These acquisitions follow Active’s purchase of Thriva LLC last year, whose EventRegister product provides online registration and payment processing for organizations including Stanford University, UCLA, the United Nations, JPMorgan Chase and many others.

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GW Equity, an advisor to closely held and family-owned businesses for mergers, acquisitions, and strategic growth initiatives, announced the sale of its client Isbell Engineering Group (IEG), a Fort Worth-based engineering firm focusing on structural, civil and geotechnical engineering, to Clough Harbour & Associates LLP (CHA), a full service engineering and planning firm based in Albany, New York. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The acquisition will extend CHA’s national reach and create a firm with combined 2006 revenues of over $118 million. The combined company’s services will include civil, structural, geotechnical, mechanical, electrical, transportation and environmental engineering; surveying; landscape architecture; technology solutions; planning; and construction services. In addition, CHA will now be able to provide construction materials testing, a well-established aspect of IEG’s business.

The acquisition will result in the addition of 85 staff and three offices to CHA, bringing the firm’s total number of employees to more than 725 and offices to 29 nationwide.

“The union of our two firms will allow both of us to better extend a wide range of professional design and construction services in the growing Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex,” stated Raymond J. Kinley, Jr, chief executive officer of CHA. “The region is experiencing tremendous economic growth, and as such the demand for our services has increased exponentially.”

According to IEG President David Isbell, “Our acquisition by CHA is a testament to IEG’s success and the people who have helped it develop over the past 30 years. This is the next logical step in our efforts to grow our business. We are fortunate that our firm has been locally owned and operated since it was established in 1977, and we are excited to advance to the national level with CHA and to provide a broader range of services.”

Brenen Hofstadter, GW Equity’s lead managing director for the transaction said, “This transaction was possible because the principals involved developed mutual trust. This will go a long way with insuring the success of the combined organization. We are proud to have found the right buyer; this is a win-win transaction.”

“We wished to align our firm with a premier organization and continue to provide our clients with the highest quality service,” added Isbell. “It was important to find a group with the same culture for integrity. We have found the CHA team to be of the highest caliber and we are proud to be joining their organization.”

PRESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has completed its acquisition of Gestalt, LLC, a privately held defense consulting firm based in Camden, New Jersey, that provides mission-support services to the U.S. Department of Defense. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Gestalt provides mission-critical command and control systems and solutions that help defense organizations achieve systems interoperability and collaboration, allowing information systems from separate branches of the armed services to share battlefield information in support of joint military operations.

Gestalt also provides services related to modeling and simulation, advanced decision-support technologies, energy-management solutions, and tactical collaborative networks. Its clients include the U.S. Armed Forces, DoD/Joint Forces Command (JFCOM/J7/JNTC), and regional power grid management organizations.

“Accenture and Gestalt joined forces through this acquisition to offer a wide range of services and proven methodologies to defense organizations,” said Eric Stange, managing director of Accenture’s U.S. Defense practice. “From helping prepare our armed forces for combat, to maximizing the efficiency of their supply chain, to energy management, to delivering critical military information from multiple data systems, the capabilities we offer defense clients will help them meet their vital mission goals and achieve high performance.”

Gestalt’s approximately 250 employees are expected to join Accenture’s Public Service operating group as part of Accenture National Security Services. The closing of the Gestalt acquisition follows Accenture’s other recent defense acquisitions, including MAXIM Systems, Inc., and George Group Consulting LLC.

Nelco and PlanSource to Become Part of CoAdvantage Family of Companies, Significantly Increasing CoAdvantage’s Size and Value after 10 Years of Success

ORLANDO, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CoAdvantage, a leading provider of end-to-end human resource solutions, today acquired two successful businesses — Nelco, Inc., and PlanSource. The acquisitions are expected to significantly increase profits for 10-year-old CoAdvantage, making it one of the top 10 professional employer organizations (PEOs) in the country, with 2007 total projected net revenue of $106 million. The acquisitions will also further the company’s mission to bring value to all stakeholders and will increase internal staff by 56 percent, as well as worksite employees, which total more than 30,000 throughout Florida, by 38 percent. The resulting entity includes two PEOs, a human resource outsourcing (HRO) company, an insurance agency, and a benefits administration software and services company.

CoAdvantage is one of first companies in the human resource services industry to demonstrate a growth strategy — through its HRO and PEO solutions — that effectively meets clients’ needs as they mature. This is especially essential in the current down market when small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) need to eliminate risk and create more financial and human resource efficiencies. CoAdvantage makes it possible for employers to cut costs while, at the same time, providing the best employee benefits possible.

“The acquisition of Nelco and PlanSource will allow us to substantially increase our value proposition to our clients,” said CoAdvantage CEO Dayne Williams. “We will enhance our bundled HR solutions to the small employer by incorporating the strengths of Nelco, while the PlanSource acquisition will provide the necessary software platform to effectively deliver our solution to employers of the mid market.”

Nelco was approached by more than 40 potential buyers. Founder Virginia Dorris — who is retiring — and her daughter, President Dori Rath, chose CoAdvantage because of its commitment to customer satisfaction and desire to retain the location, president and management team.

“Our customers will keep everything they like about Nelco,” said Rath. “We’ve spent decades building Nelco’s excellent reputation. We didn’t want to sell the company to anyone less. We are incredibly pleased with this acquisition.”

“With the Nelco acquisition, we are marrying two of the best PEOs, as far as perception and value in the marketplace, to create one of the top PEOs in the country,” said CoAdvantage PEO President Ben Hewitt. “This gives us the size we need to become a tier-one player and the ability to serve our clients through more efficient and effective methods.”

Both CoAdvantage and Nelco are highly regarded for client service and benefits. Clients will benefit with pricing advantages due to the increased buying power of this larger entity. Additionally, overhead expenses will be reduced due to combined resources.

PlanSource, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary of CoAdvantage, will offer proprietary, dynamic software that fully integrates insurance products and administrative tools, along with pre-defined portfolios of benefit options, to both CoAdvantage clients and insurance brokers. This technology will greatly simplify the procurement, implementation and management of health and benefit plans.

“The success and adoption of CoAdvantage’s HRO product has proven the need for an integrated payroll and benefits solution that eliminates the inefficiencies created by working with multiple vendors,” said Williams. “This is one example of how we continue to enhance products that will remove the unnecessary costs within the payroll, benefits and HR industries.”

“This partnership will allow CoAdvantage to expand service offerings into the SMB market space at an unprecedented rate with a product superior to anything in the market today,” said PlanSource Chief Executive Officer Scott Carver. “There has not been a provider out there that has effectively automated all of the HR processes for small businesses while delivering affordable benefit options. No one else has been able to crack that code and we can.”

Jan 02, 2008 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) BSquare recently announced that it acquired NEC Corp. of America’s Adobe Flash Technology Consulting and Distribution business for an undisclosed sum.

As a result of the transaction, BSquare noted, it is now a worldwide authorized distributor of Adobe Flash Lite software, which supports Adobe Flash Player functionality for mobile and embedded devices. A license is required for any mobile or embedded device that utilizes Flash Lite software. BSquare will license Flash Lite to OEMs building mobile and embedded devices and will also deliver Flash Lite porting, performance-optimization, testing and verification services. In addition, BSquare plans to feature Flash Lite on its DevKit hardware development platforms.

Flash Lite enables OEMs and operators to differentiate their devices with a custom user interface. It also gives end users the ability to access compelling web content such as YouTube videos. Adobe reports that more than 300 million Flash-enabled devices have shipped to date and predicts that over one billion Flash-enabled devices will be available by 2010. The BSquare acquisition includes distribution rights for Adobe Flash ports for popular hardware platforms from Broadcom, Freescale, IBM, Intel, Marvell, NEC, NXP, RMI, and Texas Instruments. BSquare will also acquire NEC’s installed Flash Lite customer base and NEC’s Flash Lite product team.

“This acquisition broadens our product and service offerings in an area of particular interest to OEMs right now, given the increasing popularity of web content such as YouTube on mobile devices. Further, OEMs desire to build compelling user interfaces on devices utilizing Flash authoring tools,” said Brian Crowley, president and CEO, BSquare. “Our engineering services team will performance-optimize Adobe Flash Lite for OEMs building mobile phones, set-top boxes, digital signs and other customer-facing devices. In addition, OEMs within the installed base of Flash customers will benefit from BSquare’s experience and expertise as a distributor of Microsoft Windows embedded licenses. We expect the acquisition to be accretive in fiscal 2008.”

“We anticipate solid growth in embedded sales as OEMs continue to offer more compelling user interfaces and end users demand the ability to view engaging Flash-enabled content,” said Mike Bergeron, Vice President of Business Development at Adobe. “We are pleased to work with BSquare, a highly-regarded embedded device technology expert and distributor, to accelerate the adoption of Adobe Flash Lite in mobile and embedded devices.”

The Internet is abuzz with news of a potential takeover of CapGemini by Indian IT giant Wipro. (MoneyControl) Although CapGemini has made the claim that there has been no contact with the potential suitor. However, The Hindustan Times has reported Wipro’s Chief Strategic Officer Sudip Nandy as saying: “Of course, we are interested in larger deals and aggressively looking for inorganic growth options” adding fuel to the fire.

This comes hot on the heels of another takeover rumour by Infosys earlier in 2007. But why so much talk in the market? CapGemini is still a giant of management consulting, with annual sales equal to several times that of it´s rumoured suitors. reporters out of India put the blame, conveniently, on the fact that CapGemini has been slow to adopt the trend of outsourcing large parts of their workforce to India and other cheap labor countries. But there must be more to it than that.

Since the acquisition of the outsourcing firm Kanbay in February the company has made no bones abouts its plans to increase its prescence in the outsourced sector, with reported statements putting their goals at 40,000 Indian employees within the next three years. Approximately 40% of its global workforce.

But, this is still a company that posts annual revenues of around $12 billion USD. Even with margins less than those of Wipro, it is still a sizable creature. And Wipro does not have a lot of ready cash on its books right now. recent acquisitions in its own past have left it a little stretched also. The Hindustan Times goes on to state that Wipro is frantically meeting with Bankers and other financial sector players trying to raise the capital required. (Rumoured to value CapGemini at around $7bn)

So if this financially seems a little bit off, then why in the world is it even being considered? We think the reasons for any takeover talk are more to do with global economics than any fault with the management of the growth strategy of CapGemini itself.

1) The US economy appears to be stressed and waning. At present Europe is a far better acquisition ground than the US. Europe has several strong economies right now, not excluding that of France here CapGemini is based.

2) CapGemini appears cheap! Recent closes at $45 place it a long way behind the March close of $59. If this is a true reflection of what the market actually values the stock at then Wipro would be getting it at a considerable discount.

3) Indian companies are ambitious. Tata Consulting, Mittal steel, Reliant Energy, all recognized as giants within the business world, and all emerging out of India. The nation is expanding, rapidly, and it is collectively pushing to carve out financial bases all over the globe, rather than being confined to the subcontinent.

CapGemini would give them access to a range o finternational markets that they do not currently have, lower profit levels that could be stripped out via their existing outsourcing capabilities, and access to a range of additional sectors outside of technology and IT if they wanted it.

The CapGemini acquisition, if there ends up being any substance to the story, would not be the first time a smaller company has bought out a larger one. But recent market movements, such as the BHP / RIO TINTO showpiece, have shown that acquisition targets may not always want to go quietly into the night.

BRACKNELL, U.K.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has signed an agreement to acquire privately held The Networked Storage Company (TNWSC), a leading IT consultancy, that specialises in transitioning customers to proven, simplified and cost-efficient IT data storage solutions.

Terms were not disclosed and the purchase will not be final until all closing conditions are met. TNWSC is based in Epsom, United Kingdom.

TNWSC’s unique Point of Proof® methodology provides an auditable end-to-end process to evaluate, select and implement proven solutions that deliver robust, simplified and cost-effective IT infrastructures. The approach, primarily implemented with storage networks, can be extended across the entire IT environment, helping to reduce overall costs and complexity of IT infrastructure maintenance and management. TNWSC has a blue chip customer base including several of Europe’s leading financial institutions.

“The Networked Storage Company has an extremely talented team that has developed an industry-leading approach enabling customers to simplify and validate their IT infrastructures. We plan to incorporate their expertise and world-class methodologies as part of our consulting offerings and scale globally,” said Stephen Murdoch, vice president, Global Infrastructure Consulting Services, Dell.

Simon Pennock, CEO and founder, TNWSC, comments, “The Networked Storage Company is driven by a passion for doing the right thing for clients. It was obvious from the start of our relationship that Dell shares not only this commitment to clients but also our belief that IT should be less complex and the costs more transparent. Dell’s global reach and depth of capability will enable us to deliver on this vision through the proven benefits of our Point of Proof® methodology.”

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, FOCUS, LLC, a national investment banking firm providing merger, acquisition and corporate finance services to middle market companies, released its predictions for the 2008 middle market merger and acquisition (M&A) industry.

Drawn from the collective insights of FOCUS’ 30 investment bankers, the forecast outlines the 10 most pressing issues for U.S. middle market companies, which include increasing foreign investments and “green” deals, changing demographics and upcoming slowdowns. The forecast can be downloadable for free at www.focusbankers.com.

“FOCUS has a definite pulse of the middle market M&A community, and we feel it is our corporate responsibility to provide mid-market companies the critical insight needed to make strategic decisions,” said Doug Rodgers, chief executive officer of FOCUS, LLC. “Despite recent 2008 recession predictions, FOCUS forecasts that the U.S. mid-market will thrive due to overseas buyers, baby boomers retiring and private equity firms offsetting the subprime credit meltdown.”

According to the forecast, FOCUS predicts the following trends will shape the 2008 middle market M&A activities:

1. European Buyers

2. Indian Buyers

3. Demographic Changes

4. Residential Construction Trends

5. Subprime Credit Meltdown

6. Election Slowdown

7. “Green” Deals Rise

8. Clean Tech Innovation

9. Energy and Natural Resource Company Consolidation

10. Energy Price Increases

To request a free copy of the “2008 Middle Market M&A Forecast,” visit www.focusbankers.com.

PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Regulatory News:

Sopra Group (Paris:SOP) has announced its planned acquisition, in cash, of the entire share capital of G2i. This proposal, which is subject to the outcome of the Works’ Council consultation, in accordance with legal provisions, should be finalised in early 2008, subject to the standard conditions precedent. The company will then be consolidated in the Group’s financial statements as of 1 January 2008.

G2i provides consulting and services in the area of embedded software and testing resources for the aerospace industry, primarily for Airbus. G2i forecasts 2007 revenue of around 4 million euros.

For Sopra Group, this acquisition forms part of its stated strategy of underpinning its positioning in France by developing its positions with major clients.

For G2i, this partnership with Sopra Group will give it access to a much broader project, allowing it to optimise developments in its current offering and secure its client base.

The financial terms of this transaction have not been disclosed.