Invensys sells Baan to US investment firms

Cashing in at a loss

Invensys today announced the sale of its enterprise application subsidiary, Baan, to two US investment groups for $135 million in cash.

Cerberus Capital Management and General Atlantic Partners plan to combine Baan with rival ERP vendor SSA Global Technologies, which the two investment firms already own.

In a statement, Invensys said a major product launch for Baan this autumn (code-named 'Gemini') will go ahead as planned. There's also plenty of marketing-speak about strategic alignment and leveraging customers bases too tedious to go into here.

British engineering firm Invensys bought Baan in May 2000 for €762 million ($708 million).

In a press conference call, Invensys' chairman, Colin Marshall, admitted this was too much.

Invensys is selling Baan as part of a wider restructuring programme. ®

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