30 October 2002 Content management specialist Vignette is to acquire portal software vendor Epicentric for $32 million (€32.5m) in a deal that signals further consolidation in the portal market.
Vignette claims that integrating Epicentric’s portal software into its core Vignette V7 content management platform will help organisations to integrate web content and enterprise applications together on a single software platform.
The acquisition is also an attempt by Vignette to bolster its flagging software sales. Once high-flying Vignette’s revenues slumped by half to $32.7 million (€33.3m) in the quarter to the end of September. Shares of Vignette have been trading around the $1 mark since late August 2002.
However, Vignette says it will gain about 250 customers from Epicentric, including joint customers. The deal is expected to close in December 2002.
Analysts had tipped San Francisco, California-based Epicentric for acquisition because they doubted the long-term strength of portal software as a standalone product. The deal follows database software vendor Sybase’s April acquisition of OnePage, a maker of software components for consumer and wireless portals.
In 2001, organisations spent about $461.2 million (€469m) on portal software, a 57% jump on the previous year. But in this market, Vignette will have to compete against much larger portal suppliers, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Oracle and BEA Systems, as well as pure-play vendor Plumtree Software.
