CRM Maker Infor Acquires Lawson Software

Infor, which makes enterprise resource planning, customer resource and other management software, announced April 26 that it is acquiring Lawson Software.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Infor, whose CEO, Charles Phillips, formerly was president of Oracle, is handling the transaction with the help of a holding company, GGC Software Holdings.

Infor produces on-premises management and production software  for manufacturing, supply chain, product lifecycle, workforce and asset management. Lawson makes enterprise financial and human resources software for improvement of business process flows that can be deployed on-premises and in the cloud.

Lawson's customers are mostly in verticals such as manufacturing, health care, distribution, public sector and hospitality.

Following completion of the transaction, the combined suite of Infor and Lawson software applications will create a new set of industry-specific tools that will serve an installed base of about 75,000 enterprises worldwide, Infor said. The tools will use a single sign-on, and have common look and feel and "seamless navigation across composite applications deployed on-premise and in the cloud," Infor said.

"After the transaction closes, we plan to integrate many of the applications facilitated by a standards-based approach, and by the fact that both companies' applications are already service-enabled," Phillips said.

Phillips said Infor has a "long list of ideas on how to improve the customer experience and deliver value through a singular focus on enterprise applications, accelerated investment and a strong incentive to challenge convention."