Bruno Vanryb, President & CEO of Avanquest Software said, “This acquisition signals a marked development in Avanquest’s e-commerce strategy and further consolidates the Company Business Solutions offering, positioning it as a formidable force in the UK software market.”
Software Paradise is the UK’s first and most successful online software superstore with an unrivalled 20 year pedigree of supplying value-added resellers (VARs) and independent software vendors. It offers a comprehensive catalogue of leading software brands from 6,000 vendors. Software Paradise also specialises in sourcing and supplying ‘unusual’ and hard to find software titles.
Chris Thompson, Managing Director of Avanquest Solutions commented: “Software Paradise is one of the best known and most respected names in the software sourcing sector, not to mention its impressive client list and business relationships. We intend to bring the power of the Avanquest infrastructure to Software Paradise, including our online ordering and channel management technology, to enable it to focus on and develop its excellent business. I am certain that the acquisition will bring significant benefits for all concerned.”
Chris Bowring, Managing Director of Software Paradise added: “We are delighted to have reached this agreement and for our business to be acquired by Avanquest. This is a very successful and ambitious organisation and we believe that this new relationship will help us take Software Paradise to the next level.”
The cost of this acquisition amounts £1 million when Software Paradise achieves a yearly turnover of £2.5 million. Software Paradise will be part of Avanquest Solutions organization.
The signing of the deal with Software Paradise comes only weeks after Avanquest Software announced its friendly take-over of Emme, one of Europe’s leading publishers of interactive multimedia content and owners of GSP. GSP is a leading consumer software publisher in the UK (3rd largest PC publisher by units*) with in excess of £9 million in sales generated from its five core markets including children’s, education, reference, utility and games software.
In January this year, Avanquest also announced its take over of California based Nova Development, a worldwide developer and publisher of software products for Windows and Macintosh platforms. Nova Development publishes more than 80 software titles and in 2006 Nova Development posted annual sales of approximately $32 million.
Bruno Vanryb concludes: “The latest additions to the Avanquest Group is a key step in achieving its corporate goal of becoming a world leader in software publishing, with an unmatched product offering and sales force to cover all distribution channels, across all territories. E-commerce is providing strong potential for growth with 13% of the company’s sales already coming from the Internet. Selling the combined product catalogue over the Internet worldwide represents a strong growth driver for the new, expanded group.”