The mergers and acquisitions merry-go-round isn’t limited to marketers. On Feb. 1, Natick, MA-based CommercialWare, the manufacturer of the CommercialWare Direct (CWD) order management system, was purchased for $13.2 million by Cleveland-based Datavantage, a subsidiary of the publicly traded Micros Systems. CommercialWare subsidiary OrderMotion was not part of the deal.
The deal will marry Datavantage’s retail applications business analytics and marketing applications with CommercialWare’s direct-to-consumer applications. CommercialWare’s applications link all aspects of the transaction lifecycle through point of sale, the back office, order management, fulfillment, and customer service. Datavantage will integrate CommercialWare’s product offerings into its product line.
According to Ernie Schell, president of Ventnor, NJ-based Marketing Systems Analysis, CommercialWare’s installed base should not notice much of a difference in the near term, as all current support staff will remain with the company. “As for future sales, CommercialWare’s original direct marketing order management system, CWDirect, will be the most valuable part of the acquisition.”