Extensity hopes to be $US1B firm within three years

Newly formed financial applications software vendor Extensity hopes to become a US$1 billion business within 36 months, according to the company's Chief Executive Officer and President Ken Walters.

Funded by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital, Extensity effectively opened its doors Monday. The new company is now home to financial and performance management applications that were previously part of Geac Computer.

Starting out, Extensity's annual revenue is around US$325 million, Walters said in a phone interview Monday. The next major milestone will be reaching $500 million, which he hopes to achieve over the next 12 to 18 months, with the eventual goal of reaching US$1 billion in annual revenue by 2009.

Like other Golden Gate companies, Extensity plans to expand through acquisitions and increased investment in research and development around a specific market segment. Extensity will provide software for financial professionals including analysts and chief financial officers (CFOs), particularly in relation to compliance and regulatory issues and business analytics, according to Walters.

Extensity will be competing with small specialist software firms as well as large enterprise applications vendors, including SAP and Oracle.

"We are going to invest in all our products and continue our very strong commitment to them via R&D," Walters said. Extensity has an installed base of 12,500 customers and 1,100 staff in 42 offices worldwide.

Extensity is finalizing decisions on where exactly to make acquisitions, but purchases of business intelligence software are likely along with longer term buys to expand the company's global presence, he said. While Extensity is strong in the U.S. and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the firm needs to grow in Asia-Pacific, according to Walters.

Golden Gate first announced plans to buy Geac, which billed its products as "software for the CFO," for around US$1 billion in November 2005. Last week, the private equity firm completed its all-cash acquisition of Geac and reorganized the company's products into two firms. Existing Golden Gate funded company Infor Global Solutions acquired Geac's ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, while the equity firm formed Extensity to pick up the other Geac products.

Walters, previously president and chief operating officer of Infor, became the head of Extensity. The new company will have two business units -- financial applications and industry specific applications. Extensity and Infor will act as two separate companies, Walters said. However, he believes Extensity "has a very good opportunity" to sell some of its performance management software into Infor's customer base.

The Extensity name comes from one of the many software companies Geac acquired over its history. Geac purchased expense management software vendor Extensity in 2002 for US$47 million. Walters was originally with Dun & Bradstreet Software, another Geac purchase.

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