Interesting to read that suitors are coming from far and wide for MYOB.
Guinness Peat Group is supporting a takeover for the business in which it already holds a 13.6% stake. It has joined in with another three investors who jointly hold 34% of the company to form a united takeover body.
Even funnier to read was the suggestion that Sage has approached MYOB looking for an acquisition – if ever someone wanted a case of two old world players (very large and profitable old world players it must be said) looking to dance the Samba before their industry dies, this is it. Sage is apparently impressed with MYOB’s investment in cutting edge technology. They must have upgraded the water coolers and coffee machines recently, because there’s nothing obvious with their software which deserves the term “cutting edge”.
My assessment of MYOB is that it’s a highly lucrative business which has however, significant medium term risks that it’s facing.
Like other traditional desktop software companies it needs to make the change, at least in the medium term, to an on-demand delivery method and with that go through the pain in terms of revenue and profit. The potential investors will know this and will either be looking to make an opportunistic purchase while during a time of economic uncertainty or alternatively will be confident that MYOB can ride out the culture shift that it’s going to have to face over the next few years.
My assessment is that the bid is more of the former than the latter and that much underestimation is happening in terms of the impact that Cloud Computing will have on MYOB’s bottom line.
Watch this space!
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Honestly as untrendy as MYOB is, right now nothing is comparable for many people who do accounts. So it’s still a good earner and money maker.
Maybe take a look at http://www.interprise.com.au This product will give MYOB a big run for their money 🙂
Interesting press release, Interprise Suite brings the best of both worlds of SaaS and client/server based accounting.
Evolve Systems Australasia (ESA), distributor of the integrated Accounting, CRM, E-Business and Point-of-Sale software solution Interprise Suite, announced today that it will be actively targeting MYOB’s small-to-medium business software customers.
After experiencing a very favourable response to the first phase of the Australian/New Zealand rollout of Interprise Suite, ESA has identified an enormous opportunity to penetrate the customer base of the established leader in the business software arena, MYOB.
Unlike the current product offerings from the likes of MYOB and Xero, Interprise Suite delivers a complete business solution that combines the best aspects of a Web application (internet enabled, easy to deploy and update) with the best attributes of a desktop system.
The development of Interprise Suite has been based on the rationale that customers should not have to settle with a business solution that is either wholly Internet-driven or LAN-based.
“For some time now the big players in the business accounting software market have been promising, or at least foreshadowing, the release of an affordable, reliable and comprehensive business solution which users can run over the Web as a browser-based application or over a LAN as a desktop application”, said Floremee Charles, Managing Director of Evolve Systems Australasia. “Unfortunately for the tens of thousands of small to mid-sized businesses which are struggling to remain profitable during these challenging economic times, the current market leaders have let their customers down.
“With Interprise Suite business owners can finally have the best of both worlds. Interprise Suite has bridged the gap by providing the business connectivity customers want without sacrificing the performance and rich user interface they have come to expect from a desktop application. Whereas MYOB and its main competitors would have to completely re-write their software to meet the connectivity demands of today’s small-to-medium sized business, Interprise Suite has been developed from the ground up.”
Whether a user is connecting via the LAN or the internet, Interprise Suite’s state of the art ‘Smart Client’ technology will automatically optimise itself based on the connection method. Interprise Suite’s ‘Smart Client’ technology allows a desktop application to run over the Internet like a secure browser application. For companies that do not need internet connectivity, Interprise Suite can be installed on a local area network just like any other Client/Server application.
In the lead-up to the release of the 2009 version of Interprise Suite – scheduled for rollout in July 2009 – ESA will be aggressively marketing Interprise Suite not only to the broader small-to-medium sized business market but also to existing users of MYOB and competing products. This will be supported
by an expanded product sales and support team at ESA, as well as by an ever-growing network of channel partners.
“We are projecting big things for Interprise Suite in 2009 and we have every reason to believe our high ambitions for the product will be achieved”, said Charles. “The simple fact is that the big players in this market cannot deliver what their customers demand right now, namely an affordable and easy to use business solution that includes all the powerful functionality of Interprise Suite – namely accounting, CRM, point-of-sale, ERP and e-business.”
Interprise Suite was developed by US-based Interprise Software Solutions, Inc. In April 2008 Interprise Software Solutions was acquired by the Services and Technology Division of Taylor Corporation, a Forbes Private 200 company with over 100 subsidiaries and 14,000 employees worldwide. A leading provider of business and personal communications products, technologies and services, Taylor Corporation provides products and services to over 3,000,000 small businesses and consumers and the majority of the Fortune 500.
In July 2008 Evolve Systems Australasia secured exclusive distribution rights to Interprise Suite for Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Pacific Islands.
Pricing and Availability
Interprise Suite is available now from Evolve Systems Australasia for an average price of $2,000.00 per user including support. Multi-user licences are also available. There is also the option to obtain software finance from Evolve Systems Australasia from $30.00 per user per week. For further information on Interprise Suite contact Evolve Systems Australasia on 1300 736 637; email sales@interprise.com.au; Web: http://www.interprise.com.au
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About Evolve Systems Australasia
Sydney-based Evolve Systems Australasia is the exclusive distributor of Interprise Suite for Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Pacific Islands. With 18 years’ experience in business application distribution, Evolve Systems Australasia provides solutions that are designed to help customers get the most out of their business software without incurring substantial expenses. Our corporate strategy focuses on the development of enduring client relationships and the provision of quality software solutions to Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We are dedicated to helping clients achieve their highest objectives and goals. For further information contact Evolve Systems Australasia on 1300 736 637; email sales@interprise.com.au; Web: http://www.interprise.com.au
all Interprise does is SPAM every blog and messageboard on the internet. Your comments are welcome, but please do not go pasting press releases everywhere. This is so unattractive
oops sorry meant to just put up a link
Doesn’t look like an accident to me…social media can be very viral with friends and enemies abound. Best not to piss people off so early in the game. It seems intersuite has a page rank of 0. It would be more advisable for them to consider getting a blog set up on the page and post these press releases on their own website. At least it will give them some real SEO credit instead of a bad reputation…