Customer relationship managment software vendor, Clarify Inc yesterday said that it has acquired Newtonian Software to bolster the sales component of its front office suite. The transaction will be accounted for under purchase accounting and Clarify expects to issue a combination of stock and cash, which values Newtonian at $16.5m.

Raleigh, North Carolina based Newtonian’s flagship product, Sales Mechanix comprises four new sales features, which will be offered as a separate module within Clarify’s eFrontOffice suite: sales catalogue, configurator, proposal generator and pricing engine and will complement Clarify’s existing sales force automation module said Clarify.

Kirsten Berg-Painter, VP of worldwide marketing, said several customers had already requested integration between Clarify and Newtonian’s software but that Clarify decided to buy Newtonian to ensure that integration was as a tight as possible. Berg-Painter said that roughly half of Newtonian’s customers were sales executives in the field, who will access the software by dialing into the corporate network. But the other half – channel partners or end-users, will use the web version, eMechanix.

Newtonian, a privately held company founded in 1989, brings Clarify a base of customers, including Miller Freeman, Raychem, Siemens and Sprint. Newtonian founder and president, Chaz Henry will join Clarify as a VP within the sales organization, responsible for knowledge and technology transfer to the Clarify team.

Clarify said it expects all Newtonian’s employees to move over into its sales and development arms once the acquisition is completed, in September 1999. It said the acquisition will be neutral to its 1999 earnings, excluding non-recurring merger- related costs and ongoing amortization associated with the acquisition.