ServiceWare Snaps Up Bankrupt InfoImage

The customer service and knowledge management software developer acquires most of the assets of the portal vendor.

Customer service and knowledge management software developer ServiceWare Technologies Inc. announced Wednesday that it has acquired most of the assets of enterprise portal software developer InfoImage Inc.

The deal gives ServiceWare all of the technology and certain customer contracts of InfoImage, which had previously declared bankruptcy, in exchange for a contingency fee of up to $1.5 million, primarily based on future sales of InfoImage products and services.

ServiceWare, in Princeton, N.J., plans to integrate Phoenix-based InfoImages DecisionPortal (formerly known as Freedom) software into its own products, saving itself from having to build new technology.

"This acquisition significantly expedites our product plan," Scott Schwartzman, chief operating officer of ServiceWare, said in a statement. "The addition of InfoImages enterprise portal products will allow us to provide our customers with a robust portal framework that seamlessly integrates with our current product offering. Portals provide a personalized and collaborative mechanism to deliver the right answer at the right time to the right audience."

InfoImage failed as a company despite receiving a $10 million equity investment from Microsoft Corp. three years ago to jointly develop portal technology—which Microsoft then called "digital dashboards"—with the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant.

Some InfoImage technology is in Microsofts SharePoint Portal Server today. The companies renewed their agreement to jointly develop intranet and extranet portal technology in February 2001.

Reader Comments: ServiceWare Snaps Up Bankrupt InfoImage >>> Be the FIRST to comment on this article!

>>> More Application Development Articles          >>> More By Dennis Callaghan