22 April 2004 Integration software supplier Tibco has acquired workflow and business process management (BPM) specialist Staffware in a surprise £122.8 million cash and stock deal.

Tibco CEO Vivek Ranadive said that the deal would help broaden the company’s product set and improve Tibco’s geographic coverage. In addition, Ranadive promised continued development of both company’s workflow and BPM products.

“We believe business processes are rapidly becoming the most valuable corporate asset,” said Tibco CEO Vivek Ranadive. “The combination with Staffware will provide Tibco with immediate reach into new and emerging markets, including retail banking, insurance, public sector and telecommunications,” he added.

Staffware has shifted in recent years from its roots in workflow – software that provides a structured means of distributing and managing documents – to an emphasis on the associated area of BPM, where it has achieved some success.

BPM promises to enable companies to build systems based around the business processes they support, using a scripting language and tools that many business analysts can understand and use themselves. BPM ought to make enterprise applications more flexible, although the technology is a long way from maturity and widespread adoption.

Staffware CEO John O’Connell said the company had accepted the deal after weighing up the risks of expanding more aggressively into the key US market. O’Connell concluded that the Tibco deal offered better value at a lower risk for stockholders.