Consolidator Acquiring The Consolidator : Infor To Acquire SSA Global

Infor announces the intent to acquire SSA global. Its a case of a consolidator acquiring a competing consolidator. Infor itslef has been assembling best-in-class enterprise software solutions and SSA itself is in the process of integrating its recent acquisitions - Baan & Epiphany. Infor beleives that its becoming the third largest enterprise software provider in the industry with approximately $1.6 billion in revenue. The Infor-Goldengate-Geac-SSA connect is an interesting aspect - that should have in a way helped engineer this deal.For sometime, Infor was going after SSA customers.The coming together shall definitely play at the mid-market segment.This acquisition may be closely watched by the combined Lawson + Intentia team besides countless number of small firms . No doubt, that in a rapidly consolidating marketplace,size and scale matters a lot. As I see it, some good products are there in this new stable - besides Baan, Ephiphany,BPCS,Datastream,Brainweb and a few more products are well known in the marketplace with satisfied customers. It is going be a critical thing to watch in terms of what level of support and growth gets provided for the variety of products rolled up as part of this acquisition. No doubt this is an architect's nightmare to bring all these as part of a homogeneous platform - which Infor will have to work towards to leverage the strengths - in the interim they may be supported as standalone products. Infor may also choose to keep a few as part of their enterprise but still available as standalone best-in-class. Its interesting and challenging journey ahead. Just guessing what could be running in the minds of the 30,000 plus customers of the so-many-acquired, integrated-to-be-integrated and superconsolidated software products.