There appears to be some consolidation going on in the low-end packaged accountancy software market, for following the Sage acquisition of DacEasy the other day, (CI No 1,641) Pegasus Group Plc has bought Bedford, Bedfordshire-based Facts Software Ltd. Facts will operate as an independent subsidiary and dealers will have the option of considering products from both Pegasus and Facts. At present few dealers are signed to both companies, so despite now offering two rival brand products Pegasus has gained access to a new dealer channel. The acquisition has cost Pegasus UKP200,000 in cash payable now, UKP200,000 in loan notes redeemable in April 1992, and a further UKP300,000 in issued loan notes convertible to cash or shares until April 1996. Pegasus also announced a joint venture with the French low-end accountancy software company SAARI. The two of them have set up a company in Paris called European Software Company SA to develop products for the European market – although that name could cause a bit of fluttering in the Boole & Babbage Inc dovecote, because Boole trades as the European Software Company. Pegasus’ Anglo-French venture is owned equally by each company and will develop a core accountancy product that can be easily adapted to national differences in accounting practices. These announcements came as Pegasus revealed its interim results: pre-tax profits fell 42% to UKP774,000 on turnover down 47% to just over UKP4m. The shortfall in profits and revenues is, says Pegasus, directly attributable to the slowing of the economy and to the continued need to invest in research and development. Return on such product development as the Pegasus Nine range for Unix, additional modules were added to Pegasus Senior DOS and the original single user Pegasus product has been redeveloped into a five module bundle and renamed PAK. The supplies side has proved recession-proof with operating profits holding up. For the rest of the year Pegasus expects to remain in profit and will continue to broaden the market appeal of its products.
