Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison isn't the only one buying out his software company's competitors. SSA Global (NASDAQ:SSAG) has its wallet open as well.
Over the last three years, SSA Global has gone on an M&A spending spree that has doubled its sales. The company's products help with corporate performance, customer relationships, product life cycles, supplier relationships, and supply chain management, among other fuctions.
In the first quarter, the company posted a 7% increase in revenues to $177.5 million, while net income fell from $6.4 million to $1 million. In all, SSA Global has $90 million in the bank.
In August, it agreed to shell out $329 million for Epiphany, which provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. With players like Oracle and Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), this is a crowded market already, but CRM was a major gap in SSA Global's offerings.
SSA Global's experience in mergers and acquisitions helped it effectively integrate Epiphany. For example, SSA Global drafted road maps for all products; trained its sales team on Epiphany's products; implemented systems to cross-sell to the SSA Global customer base; integrated the new company with the SSA Global back-office operations; and trimmed the workforce for maximum efficiency.
SSA Global is rolling up of the mid-market for enterprise software, angling for customers with $100 million to $1 billion in revenues. As Oracle, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and SAP (NYSE:SAP) duke it out for major customers, they'll likely look for growth in the mid-market. If SSA Global can continue to build market share and manage its acquisitions, it is likely to be an attractive acquisition candidate itself.
Still, it's usually not a good idea to bet on a company getting purchased. SSA Global's growth is fairly staid, and its margins are weak. What's more, the fierce competition it faces isn't likely to change. There's always the risk that a big player like Oracle and SAP, rather than buying its way into the mid-market through a company like SSA Global, will instead attack with its own products. That would be a further drag on this firm's fortunes.
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Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares mentioned in this article. Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
