SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY GROUP CONTINUES TO STRENGTHEN ITS INVESTMENT TEAM; PROMOTES TWO EXECUTIVES

J.T. Treadwell Promoted to Managing Director; Marc Bala Promoted to Principal 

 

PALO ALTO – July 7, 2010 – Symphony Technology Group (STG), a private equity firm with a strategic focus on software and services, today announced that J.T. Treadwell has been promoted from Principal to Managing Director and that Marc Bala has been promoted from Vice President to Principal. Both executives continue their work developing new investment opportunities, and helping STG companies grow through investment in innovation and disciplined transformation.

\"The growth of Symphony Technology Group\\\'s investment team is crucial to expanding our deal activity in a choppy and uncertain market, and to rewarding high-performing talent,” said STG Chairman and CEO Romesh Wadhwani.  “I am pleased that J.T. and Marc exemplify our focus on investing in and building quality companies with an emphasis on both growth and cost transformation, and I am confident that in their new positions that they will contribute even more to our firmwide commitment to building truly great companies within our portfolio.”  

About J.T. Treadwell
Since joining STG in 2003, J.T. has helped lead and manage STG’s investments in Teleca, MSC Software, Symphony Marketing Solutions, Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Intentia AB (Lawson) and GERS Retail Systems. As Managing Director, J.T. will continue to develop new investment opportunities in software, information services, and technology enabled business services.   He will also work closely with existing STG companies to create customer and shareholder value through business transformation, acquisitions, and innovation.  He will build strong and collaborative partnerships with company management in the service of creating great results for clients and shareholders. 

“Through the years of working with the team at Symphony, I have come to understand and appreciate the dedication and focus required to be a valuable partner for our companies.  We add value through collaboration and selective hands on engagement, and we help our management teams build world-class companies,” said J.T. Treadwell, Managing Director, Symphony Technology Group. “I’m honored to have the opportunity within the firm to make an increased impact of our future, and to be a strong partner for the executives and management teams across STG. I look forward to a very profitable future for us all.”

J.T. joined Symphony from Qiva, a global logistics software company where he was Director of Marketing, and Director of Strategic Planning. Prior to Qiva, J.T. was the associate for the west coast enterprise software and services practice at Bessemer Venture Partners, helping create investments in companies like Worldchain, Nistevo, and Trigo (Acquired by IBM), where he served on the Board of Directors. Prior to Bessemer, J.T. was a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group where he helped drive numerous strategic marketing and business development projects for clients in technology, consumer goods, and finance. He holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Ethics, Politics, & Economics and History from Yale University.

About Marc Bala
Marc joined STG as an Associate in 2006, was promoted to Vice President in 2009, and has now been promoted to Principal. As Principal, Marc is responsible for sourcing and executing investments for STG. In addition, Marc will continue in his roles as an observer on the Board of Directors of Capco and as a Board Member at Netik. Prior to joining STG, Marc was the Director of Corporate Development at Capco, a leading global provider of consulting, technology and processing services for the financial services industry. 

Prior to Capco, Marc was a Senior Associate at The Platinum Group, a boutique investment bank where he advised and invested in enterprise software and technology services companies. Marc started his career in the corporate finance practice at Farrell Grant Sparks, an Ireland-based accounting and consulting firm focused on the technology industry. Marc received his Bachelors from Boston College and his Masters from University College Dublin.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformative expertise to enable its companies to deliver maximum value to their clients to drive growth through innovation, to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best in class business performance. STG\\\'s current portfolio consists of eight global companies.

 

SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY GROUP HIRES INVESTMENT BANKING PROFESSIONAL CHRIS LANGONE AS VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

PALO ALTO – June 16, 2010 – SymphonyTechnology Group (STG), a private equity firm with a strategic focus on software and services, today announced that Chris Langone has joined the firm as Vice President, Business Development at the firm’s Palo Alto, California headquarters.  In this newly created role, Chris will be responsible for deal sourcing as well as developing relationships with investment bankers and other financial professionals.

"STG's mission is to build great companies over a long-term horizon by investing in transformative technology and exceptional talent to deliver breakthrough client value,” said STG Chairman and CEO Romesh Wadhwani.  “I am pleased to welcome Chris to our team as he continues our efforts to identify and invest in businesses which have the opportunity to become truly great companies.”

Prior to joining STG, Mr. Langone was a Vice President at Redwood Capital Group, based in the firm’s New York office. Mr. Langone, who has over 14 years of investment banking experience, helped lead Redwood Capital Group’s transaction origination and execution efforts across the business services, technology and communications sectors.

Chris joined Redwood Capital from Banc of America Securities, where he was a Vice President in their Business & Technology Services investment banking group focused on M&A transactions, public equity offerings and debt financings for tech-enabled services, marketing services, outsourced services, for-profit education and human capital companies.  Prior to Banc of America Securities, Chris was a Vice President at BMO Capital Markets in their Business Services investment banking group.  He has also served as a Principal and Head of Investment Banking at University Angels, an online investment bank focused on raising capital for angel stage companies.  Chris began his investment banking career as an Analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison.  During his tenure on Wall Street, Chris has completed over $3 billion of transactions for more than 40 growth stage and middle-market companies.  

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformative expertise to enable its companies to deliver maximum value to their clients to drive growth through innovation, to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best in class business performance. STG's current portfolio consists of 8 global companies.
 

SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY GROUP OFFERS BULLISH OUTLOOK FOR SOFTWARE AND SERVICES SECTORS

Private Equity Firm’s Portfolio Seeing Strong Demand for Services, Data Intelligence and Predictive Analytics Services 

PALO ALTO, CA, April 27, 2010 – Symphony Technology Group (STG), a strategic long-term investment private equity firm, today issued a bullish outlook on the software and services sectors and a performance update on its portfolio holdings.
As of April 27, 2010, STG’s portfolio companies include: Capco; Symphony Information Resources Inc.; MSC.Software; Symphony Services; Teleca; Netik; Lawson Software; and Aldata.  Combined, these companies have over $2 billion in revenue and 15,000 employees worldwide.  STG sold Symphony Marketing Solutions (SMS) to Genpact (NYSE: G) on Feb. 3, 2010.
"STG's mission is to serve as a catalyst to building great companies over a long-term horizon and we, therefore, invest in companies where we can accelerate their potential that will produce strong ROI in the years ahead,” said STG Chairman and CEO Romesh Wadhwani.  “At this period in time, businesses across all industries are investing in transformative services and solutions as they adapt to a new economic reality.  STG’s portfolio companies are benefiting from this trend as they help businesses optimize their operating models, data intelligence, infrastructure requirements and marketing performance to increase market share and margins.  
All of STG’s portfolio companies share a common DNA -- exceptional talent, breakthrough client value and commitment to innovation.  STG’s role is to unlock this intrinsic value by working closely with our portfolio companies’ management teams so they sustain best-in-class business performance, strong revenue growth and profitability.”  

STG reported on the performance of several of its portfolio companies:  

Capco 
Capco is the market leader in lasting, transformative services to the highly complex, global market of financial services. The company specializes in strategy, transformation and technology services in capital markets, wealth & investment management, banking, risk, finance & compliance and information technology. Capco is well ahead of both its top and bottom line plan and forecasts over $275 million in annualized revenue by the end of 2010, which represents approximately 90%+ organic growth.  The company is engaged by the top executives of 75 of the world’s 100 largest financial institutions and serves the market with a unique and differentiated operating model based on deep industry experience, streamlined solutions and accelerators, efficient operations and a culture that emphasizes client service and performance instead of the traditional tenure-based model.  Capco’s extraordinary client success is the result of its ability to attract and retain the best financial services professionals who average more than 14 years of industry and consulting experience, significantly higher than the industry average. This enables Capco to deliver growth-driving strategies, transformative solutions, technology innovation and large operational efficiencies to clients.  The company expects to add over 1,000 world class professionals in the next two years, while managing attrition at a low rate.  

“Capco has been STG’s best performing portfolio company in the past year and our clients are increasingly turning to Capco’s world class expertise, deep industry experience and unique global model to address their most challenging business needs,” said Romesh Wadhwani, chairman and CEO, Symphony Technology Group.  “Consulting in complex industries like financial services is no longer a generalists’ business.  Financial institutions want consultants and technology specialists with deep vertical expertise in their sector and the world’s best known financial services brands are turning to Capco for its domain experience and its differentiated ability to transform their businesses strategically, operationally and technologically.” 

Symphony IRI Group (Formerly Information Resources, Inc.) 
Symphony IRI Group is the innovation leader for insights in the Retail & CPG value chain. The recent recession significantly re-shaped consumers’ purchase behavior criteria and consumption patterns, possibly for many years to come.  As economic uncertainty remains intact, we expect to see marketers increase their investment in data and analytics, and these investments have been reflected in a strong 2009 performance with record profitability for Symphony IRI Group.  Formerly known as Information Resources, Inc. or “IRI”, the company was re-branded in March 2010 as SymphonyIRI Group to embrace the company’s evolution into predictive automated analytics, technology platforms and strategic consulting services.  The company is recruiting consultants and subject matter experts with deep experience in these areas.  In 2010, SymphonyIRI is introducing a new suite of innovative solutions for consumer package goods, retail and healthcare companies that translate deep, highly-nuanced business insights into transformational strategies, higher performance and ROI.  The company just introduced Target Advantage®, a solution designed to provide retailers with deeper shopper segmentation and targeting solutions to drive improved marketing effectiveness at the individual household and retailer levels.

MSC.Software
MSC Software, with over $200M in revenue, is a global leader in software simulation solutions that helps companies accelerate product design and save substantial cost. MSC works with leading companies throughout the product design process from concept to validation and testing by simulating real-world behaviors of products and systems.  MSC’s offerings range from individual simulation tools to enterprise simulation management systems, enabling individual engineers to advance their designs and corporations to accelerate innovation and eliminate physical prototypes.  Major customers are in aerospace, automotive, defense, heavy machinery, electronics, consumer products, biomedical, shipbuilding, and rail industries, as well as leading universities and research centers.
Symphony Technology Group completed the $390M take-private investment in MSC in October 2009.  Since then, STG's leadership team, in partnership with MSC's management, has made significant progress in transforming the business by recruiting key leadership, increasing focus on core simulation products, redeploying resources, and transforming business processes.  The pace of product releases has increased substantially and profitability is up 100%.               

Symphony Services Corporation (SSC)
Symphony Services is the market leader in delivering Engineering Outcomes to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Global Enterprises, and is projecting strong growth into 2010 behind a strengthened leadership team.   Engineering Outcome certainty offerings from SSC blend people process and IP to deliver contracted business outcomes across product lifecycles and in recent quarters Symphony Service’s has made strong progress in broadening its reach with traction with customers in embedded systems, virtual engineering for aerospace and automotive, and analytic solutions across the supply chain.     

Teleca
Teleca is the worldwide leader in providing software development solutions for mobile devices.  With rapid and disruptive innovation in the mobile device industry, major players are investing heavily in expertise to create compelling mobile solutions for consumers.   As the market leader, Teleca is growing quickly behind this tailwind of demand with a global sales and services delivery platform to help customers in mobile devices, automotive, and media create compelling experiences for their customers – and is on track to have a record growth year in 2010 while investing for the future with greatly expanded capabilities in Asia, the US, and India.  

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformative expertise to enable its companies to deliver maximum value to their clients to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best in class business performance. All STG companies are expected to grow through innovation. STG's current portfolio consists of 8 global companies.  

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SYMPHONY SERVICES CONSOLIDATES SYMPHONY METREO BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Improves Ability to Execute Client Engagements on a Broad Scale and Enables Rapid Growth

 

PALO ALTO, CA and BANGALORE, INDIA--(April 14, 2010) -  Symphony Service Corp., the leader in global software product engineering services, today announced it has consolidated the operations of Symphony Metreo, bringing Metreo`s line of Analytic Solutions to Symphony Services. Aimed at increasing the ability to serve clients and more readily execute large engagements, this move is an important and natural step in implementing Symphony Services` solutions and service-based strategy.

\"When we considered how our business had changed from a strict enterprise software model to one focused on delivering value through a combination of enterprise solutions coupled with technology-enabled services and also the scale of the engagements with our clients, joining forces with our sister company, Symphony Services, was clearly the right next step for us,\" said Tal G. Ball, CEO of Symphony Metreo. \"Due to our long, successful partnership, Symphony Services was already supplying two thirds of the people on our team. Now with more integrated operations, we are able to move faster and on a broader scale to help our clients achieve superior results from better, fact-based decisions.\"

\"Analytic Solutions is a key component of the Symphony Services growth strategy, and we are delighted to welcome the clients and team from Symphony Metreo,\" said Dr. Pallab Chatterjee, Chairman and CEO of Symphony Services. \"As companies seek insights and opportunities to improve their results by taking an increasingly comprehensive look at their business, we aim to provide them and their software vendors with a full range of solutions to help them achieve their objectives. Analytic Solutions furthers our vision of outcome certainty by enabling smarter, faster decisions.\"

The initial Analytic Solutions offerings will ensure continuity and protect the investments of existing Symphony Metreo clients and provide capabilities for delivering additional value. Offering areas include operations management processes and solutions development primarily focused on software providers, infomediaries and high tech and industrial manufacturers.

About Symphony Services
Symphony Service Corp. is the only global specialist providing software product engineering outsourcing services necessary for Engineering Outcome Certainty™. ISV`s, software-enabled businesses, and companies whose products contain embedded software partner with Symphony Services to achieve their business goals, from improving product line revenue to raising client satisfaction, increasing product innovations and reducing time-to-market. The company helps clients drive unparalleled innovation while bringing predictability to costs, schedules and quality of the outsourced engineering process. Symphony Services` capabilities across the full Product Development Lifecycle maximize the ROI for client engineering organizations while delivering market-leading products in Telecom, Healthcare, Energy, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Financial Services and Internet Commerce. 

The company`s risk-reward partnership models and focus on transparent, metrics-driven value delivery ensures complete alignment with clients` business and R&D objectives. Utilizing an approach centering on a repeatable, industrialized process that drives productivity across all client engagements while ensuring business outcomes, Symphony Services is helping its clients deliver over 1,200 software releases annually. Leveraging the product DNA and superior intellect of its people, the company`s approach leads to superior engineering on-time, on-budget, and with Outcome Certainty Symphony Services is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., with facilities in North America, India, Europe and China. For more information, please visit www.symphonysv.com.
 

ROB FLATLEY NAMED CEO AND PRESIDENT OF NETIK LLC

GENPACT ACQUIRES SYMPHONY MARKETING SOLUTIONS

Strengthens Its Leadership in Analytics and Data Management; Adds Vertical Domain Expertise in Retail, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Packaged Goods

NEW YORK and GURGAON, India (February 3, 2010): Genpact Limited (NYSE: G), a leader in managing business processes for companies around the world, today announced the acquisition of Symphony Marketing Solutions, Inc. (SMS), a leading provider of analytics and data management services with expertise in the retail, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods industries. SMS has more than 1,200 employees in India and the United States. Concurrently with the closing of the SMS acquisition, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), one of the world’s leading providers of enterprise market information solutions and services and a strategic client of SMS, has executed an eight-year contract under which SMS will provide end-to-end data management and analytics services to IRI. 

Genpact was one of the first companies to offer high-end analytics services from delivery centers in India and today is one of the largest global providers of the full spectrum of analytics services. The acquisition of SMS expands Genpact’s scale and depth in the retail, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods industries and reinforces Genpact’s leadership position in the knowledge process outsourcing industry. 

Customer transactions are generating billions of data points a year, but the skills required to effectively manage, integrate, and analyze the massive quantities of data are beyond the core competencies of many companies. Genpact has developed modular analytics processes that can be easily embedded in a client’s information management systems to convert this data into insights. Combined with our rigorously scientific Smart Enterprise Processes (SEP^SM), Genpact uses these insights to help companies increase sales, reduce costs and improve business effectiveness. 

“This acquisition allows both companies to combine expertise and significantly enhance the value we bring to our clients,” said Pramod Bhasin, president and CEO of Genpact. “SMS has a strong client-centric and performance driven culture that aligns very well with Genpact. SMS brings deep domain expertise in the retail, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods verticals. This expertise will not only allow us to offer a broader range of services ranging from core finance and accounting, procurement and supply chain to data management and advanced analytics solutions, but will also enhance our Smart Enterprise Processes (SEP^SM) in these verticals by leveraging strong insights to deliver accelerated business impact to clients worldwide.”

“As SMS and its parent company Symphony Technology Group (STG) assessed ways to build leadership in the data management and marketing operations space, we realized the need to have critical mass in terms of size, scale and client relationships to significantly accelerate our growth and to enable IRI and other clients to offer even more value to their end-customers,” said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, STG’s founder, chairman and CEO. “The combination of SMS’s domain expertise and capabilities in the retail, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods verticals with Genpact’s scale, breadth of services, global delivery footprint, Lean Six Sigma approach, and unparalleled process expertise, creates a compelling value proposition for our clients and employees to drive growth,” he added. 

About Genpact 

Genpact is a leader in managing business processes, offering a broad portfolio of enterprise and

industry-specific services. The company manages over 3000 processes for more than 175 clients worldwide. Putting process in the forefront, Genpact couples its deep process knowledge and insights with focused IT capabilities, targeted analytics and pragmatic reengineering to deliver comprehensive solutions for clients. Lean and Six Sigma are ingrained in the company’s culture, which views the management of business processes as a science. Genpact has developed Smart Enterprise Processes (SEP^SM), a groundbreaking, rigorously scientific methodology for managing business processes, which focuses on optimizing process effectiveness in addition to efficiency to deliver superior business outcomes. Services are seamlessly delivered from a global network of centers to meet a client’s business objectives, cultural and language needs and cost reduction goals. 

About Symphony Marketing Solutions 

Founded as part of the Symphony Technology Group family of companies, Symphony Marketing Solutions (SMS) is now the gold standard for creation of both market and customer insights. This is made possible by our globally sourced data management and analytical services, deep Sales and Marketing expertise, and a services organization that executes with uncompromising attention to quality and security. Employing over 1,200 data, analytics and sales/marketing experts worldwide, SMS leverages a multi-shore delivery model to provide rapid, respon

sive and results-driven solutions to savvy marketers in key industries. Symphony Marketing Solutions is the preferred alternative for many of the world's strongest brands. More information is available at www.symphonyms.com. 

Safe Harbor 

This press release contains certain statements concerning our future growth prospects and forward-looking statements, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to a slowdown in the economies and sectors in which our clients operate, a slowdown in the BPO and IT Services sectors, the risks and uncertainties arising from our past and future acquisitions, our ability to manage growth, factors which may impact our cost advantage, wage increases, our ability to attract and retain skilled professionals, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, general economic conditions affecting our industry as well as other risks detailed in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Genpact’s Annual Report on Form 10-K. These filings are available atwww.sec.gov. Genpact may from time to time make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. Although Genpact believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management’s current analysis of future events. Genpact does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of Genpact.

SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY GROUP APPOINTS 25-YEAR INDUSTRY VETERAN R. ANDREW ECKERT MANAGING DIRECTOR AND GENERAL PARTNER

Eckert to Leverage More Than 10 Years Experience as CEO; Initially to work with MSC.Software

Palo Alto, CA – November 2, 2009 – Symphony Technology Group (STG), a private equity firm with a strategic focus on software and services, today announced that R. Andrew (Andy) Eckert has joined the firm as a Managing Director and General Partner. At STG, Eckert will partner with the management teams of Symphony Technology Group portfolio companies to apply his operations experience through the business transformation process. Eckert initially will work directly with new management at MSC.Software, a Santa Ana, CA-based design simulation software company. STG completed its acquisition of MSC on October 13.

“Our approach has always been to apply best practices in operations and technology innovation to accelerate both the revenue growth rate and profitability of our portfolio companies,” said STG Chairman and CEO Romesh Wadhwani. “Andy brings extensive experience as a CEO and turnaround expert to STG, which will add strategic value to our portfolio companies, especially MSC. We are happy to welcome Andy to the team.”

“STG has a strong track record investing in companies with promise and transforming them into great companies,” said Andy Eckert. “It’s gratifying to build a team and execute on the company’s goals together. I’m excited to join STG and partner with MSC and other portfolio companies to help them realize their potential and deliver better value to customers and investors.”

Eckert joins STG from Eclipsys, a healthcare information technology company, which recently relocated to Atlanta from San Jose, CA. Eckert served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Eclipsys from 2005 to 2009. During that five-year period, Eckert is credited with leading a comprehensive turnaround of the company.

Prior to his success at Eclipsys, Eckert was Chief Executive Office of SumTotal Systems, Inc., a provider of learning and business performance technologies and services that was created by the merger of Docent, Inc. and Click2learn. Prior to that merger, Eckert was the CEO of Docent from 2002 to 2004. Previously, Mr. Eckert spent 11 years with ADAC Laboratories, a global leader in nuclear medicine and radiation therapy planning systems, where he served in a variety of senior executive positions, including CEO from 1997-2001.

Prior to his time with ADAC, Eckert worked in the consulting and financial industries with Goldman Sachs, Summit Partners and Marakon Associates. Eckert currently serves as a board member of Varian Medical Systems, an oncology capital equipment company.

Eckert holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformative expertise to enable its companies to deliver maximum value to their clients to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best in class business performance. All STG companies are expected to grow through innovation. STG's current portfolio consists of 10 global companies.

For more information, please contact:
Carol Sacks
TENOR Communications
carol@tenorcom.com
650.520.8261

SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY GROUP COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF MSC.SOFTWARE; TRANSITION TO PRIVATELY HELD COMPANY CREATES FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH

MSC Appoints New CEO and CFO

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Symphony Technology Group (STG), a private equity firm with a strategic focus on software and services, today announced it has successfully completed its acquisition of MSC.Software Corporation (Nasdaq:MSCS - News). MSC.Software is a global software company, with industry leadership in engineering simulation solutions, and whose suite of applications and services drive innovation through accelerated design, improved product quality, and reduced engineering costs. Under the terms of the deal, Maximus Holdings Inc., an investment vehicle of STG and co-investor Elliott Management Corporation has purchased all outstanding shares of MSC stock for a price of $8.40 per share in cash, a total purchase price of approximately $390M. Effective immediately, Dominic Gallello joins MSC as CEO. Gallello comes to MSC from Graphisoft, a Budapest-based architectural design software developer, where he was CEO. In addition, Jim Johnson joins MSC as CFO. Johnson was most recently CFO of VG Holdings, a videogame producer that was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2007.
   "STG's mission is to be a catalyst and partner in helping to build great companies, by enabling them to deliver breakthrough value to clients, by investing in growth through innovation and by attracting and retaining the best talent," said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, founder, Chairman and CEO of STG. "Under the leadership of Dominic, Jim and senior members of the existing MSC management team, we will build a stronger company, leveraging MSC's outstanding reputation, longstanding customer relationships, leading technology, and talented team."
   "The acquisition of MSC by STG is the culmination of Elliott's activist effort to maximize shareholder value by finding the right partner for MSC," said Jesse A. Cohn, portfolio manager at Elliott. "STG's outstanding track record of working with companies to improve their execution and innovation will help MSC truly succeed as a leader in simulation software for manufactured products."
   "An investor like STG will be an active partner for the MSC team," said Ashfaq A. Munshi, Interim CEO and President of MSC. "MSC has made important strides during the last year, and STG will accelerate that progress. STG has consistently helped its portfolio companies to achieve best-in-class business performance by focusing on improving value delivered to customers. While I will now transition out of my interim CEO role, I'm very excited about the future of MSC."

New Executives

New CEO Dominic Gallello is an established leader who brings to MSC a deep background in design software. Early in his career, he spent

11 years at Intergraph, leading the company's businesses in both China and Japan. Following his time with Intergraph, Gallello spent 10 years at Autodesk, serving as EVP Asia/Pacific, establishing and running the high growth Mechanical Division and later served as EVP for all design and engineering related products. Throughout his career, Gallello has established a track record of building great products, driving an intense customer focus and building global brands. Gallello holds both BA and MBA degrees from Monmouth University.

   Incoming CFO Jim Johnson brings strong operational finance experience to MSC, along with experience at both hardware and software companies. Prior to being CFO for VG Holdings, Johnson was a Vice President of Finance for Veritas. Before joining Veritas, Johnson worked for Sun Microsystems for more than 15 years. During his career at Sun, Johnson served as Vice President of Finance for Worldwide Operations as well as Vice President of Finance of Worldwide Sales. Johnson holds a BA degree from University of Minnesota and a MBA degree from University of Chicago.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformative expertise to enable its companies to deliver maximum value to their clients to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best in class business performance. All STG companies are expected to grow through innovation. STG's current portfolio consists of 10 global companies.

About Elliott
Elliott's two funds, Elliott Associates, L.P. and Elliott International, L.P., together have more than $15 billion of assets under management. The funds' investors include institutions, foundations, endowments, pensions, high net worth individuals, and family offices. The 32-year-old trading firm is one of the oldest of its kinds under continuous management.

About MSC.Software Corporation
MSC.Software is a leading global provider of simulation software, that helps companies make money, save time and reduce costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products. MSC.Software works with thousands of companies in hundreds of industries to develop better products faster. For additional information about MSC.Software please visit www.mscsoftware.com.
 

FORBES MAGAZINE - Private Equity Done Right

Rebecca Buckman, 08.19.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated September 07, 2009

Instead of buying a sleek, well-managed company, you could buy one with room for improvement. That's what Romesh Wadhwani does.

Romesh Wadhwani's timing was good. In March 2000, at the peak of the Internet bubble, he sold the software company he started, Aspect Development, for $9.3 billion. Now he's betting hundreds of millions of his own dollars, and nearly as much from outside investors, on the notion that he can strike gold a second time by reengineering established software companies.

His Palo Alto, Calif. firm, Symphony Technology Group, is in the business of buying up midsize software and data processing outfits. Once they're under his knife, Wadhwani employs tactics more akin to laparoscopic surgery than amputation. He shows his charges how to slash costs by eliminating warehouses full of servers, and the high-paid engineers that tend them, in favor of over-the-Internet computing. He's also big on outsourcing to his native India. Then Wadhwani pushes managers to use some of their savings to boost R&D.

Symphony is a private equity outfit of the old-school variety. It aims to quadruple or quintuple its money in a half-dozen years or so by importing know-how that improves operations. That's light-years from how, over the past decade, leveraged buyout firms have come to pursue profits by loading up targets with mountains of debt and cashing out.

Wadhwani launched Symphony's first fund in 2002 with $350 million of his own money and zero debt. He put together a second, $700 million fund two years ago with 60% of the cash coming from limited partners, including Princeton, Stanford and the government of Singapore. (Wadhwani originally got commitments for $900 million but ratcheted back after the financial meltdown.) Many private equity funds of the same vintage are in a world of hurt these days. Not Symphony II. Wadhwani has deployed a mere 15% of the fund, and all nine companies he has invested in are profitable.
"Financial engineering is not our game," sniffs Wadhwani, 62. "Helping to build growth companies is."

Wadhwani was first bitten by the entrepreneurial bug at college in his native Mumbai in the 1960s. Along with school buddies, he opened a dormitory canteen that profited from the fact that his fellow students' next closest option for buying Cokes and other junk food was miles away. Wadhwani chafed early on at India's socialist bureaucracy while admiring U.S. companies like General Electric and Detroit's Big Three. He decamped in 1969 to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University to earn master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering.

After graduating, Wadhwani remained in the U.S. and spent two decades as a high-tech corporate warrior. He eventually ran Compuguard, a maker of energy management and security systems for commercial buildings, and American Robot, which turned out assembly-line gear. In 1991 he decided to start up his own show and moved to Silicon Valley in search of engineering talent for then fledgling Aspect. Wadhwani built the maker of business-to-business transaction software into a $200 million (sales) company before unloading it. His 18% was worth $1.5 billion.

With his riches, Wadhwani built himself a 13,000-square-foot, salmon-colored mansion in ritzy Los Altos Hills. A finicky buyer, he picked out marble for floors and columns on a trip to Italy. He shares the home, whose architecture he describes as a fusion of Venetian and Rajasthani styles, with his wife and his 92-year-old mother.

He brings a similar maniacal attention to detail to his dealmaking. The past year Symphony made all of one purchase--the $360 million buyout of MSC Software, which writes programs for industrial testing and design. William Chisholm, who has worked for Wadhwani for seven years, recalls how the Saturday before the deal closed he was summoned to his boss' home. As in the past, Wadhwani sat him in front of a window in the library, a spot Chisholm jokingly refers to as "the torture chamber," and grilled him on how MSC would cut costs and restructure.

"The temperature's rising, and you're getting interrogated…," recalls Chisholm.

Wadhwani's ideal target is a tech company with annual sales between $50 million and $500 million. It's unlikely to be a household name but might own valuable intellectual property, like specialized manufacturing software. Or it could own a product Symphony knows how to churn out efficiently, like mobile phone applications. Symphony operates its own Indian software-development outfit, Symphony Services, which can produce such applications cheaply.

The other necessary ingredient is inefficiency. Without it, there's nothing for Symphony to improve. Often Wadhwani's key indicator that a company is operating below its potential is a big gap between its gross profit and its net before interest and taxes. Such a chasm could have an innocent explanation: The company is spending all that money on astutely marketing its products and developing new ones. More likely: A fair amount of the overhead is going to waste.

So it was with MSC. The $254 million (2008 sales) company had a storied history of providing high-end computer-assisted design systems that enable makers of planes, autos and the like to simulate the operation of turbines and engines before tightening a single bolt.

When Symphony came calling, however, a lot of money was disappearing between MSC's 80% gross margin and its 10% EBIT (earnings before tax and interest) margin. In contrast, rival Ansys boasted an EBIT margin of 40%. Wadhwani is keeping mum about specific plans to improve MSC's profitability because his purchase hasn't officially closed. But it's a safe bet that Symphony will trim expenses by migrating computing operations from inside the company into the far cheaper Internet "cloud."

That's how Symphony turned around market-research firm Information Resources. Wadhwani bought the Chicago outfit, whose main rival is Nielsen Co., in 2003, when it was losing money and had just lost its biggest client, Procter & Gamble. Symphony pushed Information Resources to roll out more high-tech products, including one called Liquid Data. It helped customers pinpoint stores where sales were slipping and profiled each neighborhood's demographics.

The trick was something that goes by the jargony name "service-oriented architecture." It's a process that enables firms to create products by stitching together various pieces of software over the Internet. Since Symphony took over, it has added people to the Information Resources payroll even while cutting labor costs, thanks to outsourcing to India the basic analytical and data-reporting work. Symphony expects Information Resources to earn an operating profit of around $65 million this year.

Wadhwani says other companies in his stable are also prospering despite the down market. Swedish mobile phone software outfit Teleca moved into the black this year and has reduced debt from $18 million to less than $3 million since Symphony bought a 30% stake in 2007.

Other firms have overhead costs that seem to cry out for the attention of a new owner or changed management. While Wadhwani is reluctant to be a stock picker, forbes has assembled a short list of small software firms with the potential to boost their profit margins (see table below).

Wadhwani's flavor of private equity is not nearly as sexy as the splashy 12-figure buyouts that dominated the headlines a few years ago. But it may prove more profitable in the long run.

Back Of The Class
These top eight tech firms (please download below) sport gross margins above 50% but pretax margins in the single digits. Giants Microsoft and Oracle, by contrast, fare far better. Hands-on buyout artist Romesh Wadhwani thinks that laggards, generally, offer the most promise.

Pricing as of Aug. 11. *Enterprise value divided by latest 12-month sales Source: Reuters Fundamentals via FactSet Research Systems

SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY GROUP AND ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES ANNOUNCE PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF MSC. SOFTWARE

Stockholders will receive $7.63 in cash per share in a merger transaction valued at approximately $360 million

PALO ALTO, Calif. – July 7, 2009

Symphony Technology Group (STG), a leading private equity firm, and Elliott Management Corp., a $14 billion private investment firm, today announced that affiliates of STG have entered into a definitive agreement with MSC.Software Corporation (MSC) to acquire all of MSC’s outstanding shares in a one-step all-cash merger transaction valued at approximately $360 million. Under the terms of the agreement, MSC’s stockholders will receive $7.63 in cash for each share of MSC common stock, representing approximately a 13% premium to the closing price per share of MSC’s stock prior to this announcement and approximately a 24% premium compared to the 90-trading day trailing average price per share.

“MSC’s offerings are the clear market leading simulation solutions with proven track records of delivering compelling value to customers. MSC has a long history of driving innovation in the design simulation space for multiple industries. Symphony’s mission is to be a partner in helping to build great companies and in enabling growth through innovation, so we are very pleased to have the opportunity to build upon the strong franchise that the MSC team has developed over the past 45 years,” said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Symphony Technology Group.

“We are very pleased to have facilitated this transaction," said Jesse A. Cohn, Portfolio Manager at Elliott. "This will allow MSC to continue to deliver innovative solutions in the simulation software sector. As significant equity holders in MSC, we will maintain our ownership alongside STG, which has a strong track record of building outstanding software companies.”

MSC.Software’s Board of Directors has approved the merger agreement and are recommending that stockholders adopt the agreement. In connection with the transaction, stockholders representing approximately 14% of the outstanding shares of MSC, including the company’s largest stockholder, Elliott, and all of the company’s directors and executive officers, have entered into voting agreements to vote in favor of the transaction. Elliott also has committed to provide debt and equity financing to help finance the transaction. Wells Fargo Foothill, part of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), and CapitalSource have committed to provide senior debt financing.

The MSC transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of MSC’s stockholders and regulatory approvals. This transaction is expected to close near the end of the third quarter of 2009.

Shearman & Sterling LLP served as legal counsel to STG; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel to Elliott; and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal counsel to MSC.

About Symphony Technology Group

Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformative expertise to enable its companies to deliver maximum value to their clients to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best in class business performance. All STG companies are expected to grow through innovation. STG’s current portfolio consists of nine global companies.

About Elliott

Elliott’s two funds, Elliott Associates, L.P. and Elliott International, L.P., together have more than $14 billion of assets under management. The funds’ investors include institutions, foundations, endowments, pensions, high net worth individuals, and family offices. The 32-year-old trading firm is one of the oldest of its kinds under continuous management.

About MSC. Software Corporation

MSC.Software Corporation (NASDAQ: MSCS) is a global leader of simulation solutions that help companies make money, save time and reduce costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products. MSC.Software works with thousands of companies in hundreds of industries to develop better products faster by utilizing information technology, software, services and systems. MSC.Software employs more than 1000 people around the world. For additional information about MSC.Software's products and services, please visit www.mscsoftware.com.

CGT: Consumer Goods Technology

Dr. Romesh Wadhwani of IRI on Next-Gen Consumer & Shopper Insights

Posted On: 3/18/2009

Dr. Romesh Wadhwani of IRI on Next-Gen Consumer & Shopper Insights
Albert Guffanti

There appears to be a seismic shift underway in the consumer goods (CG) industry relating to consumer and shopper understanding. Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, managing partner, Symphony Technology Group, and chairman, IRI, shares his predictions for the future of consumer insights and offers recommendations for how CG manufacturers can best leverage new solutions and business processes to take advantage of the wealth of information that is available today.

Why do today's CG manufacturers and retailers need to gain a more in-depth knowledge of shoppers when there are already mountains of data available?

Wadhwani: The economic transformation that has transpired over the last year has completely changed how shoppers learn about, purchase and use CG products. Most of the data previously collected is useless in today's changed environment. Manufacturers and retailers alike are scrambling to keep pace with these rapidly evolving shopping behaviors and are seeking new capabilities in the areas of new product lifecycle management, pricing and promotion optimization, assortments and layouts, and new sources of deeper insight to drive their businesses. They must be able to create exhaustively detailed profiles of the shoppers they serve and then have this new information used across their entire business, not just market research. Furthermore, they need to create these profiles quickly, so that they can leverage this new knowledge in near real time. Take today's sales organizations as an example. They are undergoing a fundamental rewiring of how they gather, synthesize and use consumer and shopper insights to compete more effectively. Before, this task was some other department's job -- now it is squarely in front of the chief sales officer.


How can new consumer and shopper insights solutions help CG companies better understand the volumes of data they collect?

Wadhwani: While the CG industry collects extremely rich and granular data, the capability to understand and leverage insights has been way behind the curve, and in some cases, non-existent. IRI recognized this tremendous gap and has been working diligently to fill the "white space" with its next generation IRI Liquid Data technology and supporting business applications. These capabilities came online last year, and clients are already leveraging new insights in dramatically different ways. For example, Shopper Insights powered by IRI Liquid Data is helping one major snacking manufacturer integrate disparate sources of deep consumer and shopper information, then make it available to multiple departments across its organization in formats that are easy to access. It can now generate information in real time, which enables managers across the entire company to create insights on demand. This information is more complete, more integrated, more current, more local and provides faster, better and more relevant insights.

What makes these new approaches to consumer and shopper insights truly "transformative"?

Wadhwani: Today's progressive companies have recognized the value and the power of insights that are based on integration of near real-time access to all store, UPC and shopper-level data.  They are working to leverage shopper insights across three different but interconnected fronts -- strategy, technology and implementation. Traditionally, people were working with fragmented pieces of information about a particular category, region or store versus taking a holistic approach to the shopper across a multitude of factors. This new approach arms sales and marketing executives with the ability to create new attribute-based measurement that is built around the person, family, household, promotions, assortments and channel.

What role is micro-segmentation of consumers playing today?

Wadhwani: Successful CG manufacturers and retailers today are dividing their target markets into increasingly minute micro-segments, creating experiences differentiated for very small target groups. Traditionally, with today's solutions, these companies can, at best, focus on 20 percent of their most loyal and profitable market base. The new capabilities coming online now provide accessibility to information that enables companies to focus on a much greater percentage of critical micro-segments. Instead of focusing on 20 percent of the most attractive shoppers, we're now in position to arm companies with the ability to focus on 40 percent or more, which directly translates to significant sales lift.

How is today's economic turmoil impacting CPG and retail? What does the future hold?

Wadhwani: We see the U.S. economy evolving through three phases. Phase one represented the initial shock of rapidly rising food and energy prices coupled with a credit crisis. Phase two consisted of prices leveling off, but consumers reacting to earlier shocks with extreme cost cutting. Phase three, which we are currently in, is characterized by a permanent shift away from the shopper rituals on which many CG manufacturers and retailers built their businesses. This permanent change is driving the market need for solutions that empower innovative CG companies to identify trends early and rapidly collaborate to create new solutions. The ability to quickly adapt products, promotions, pricing, assortments and layouts is absolutely essential for increased growth and profitability.

How can these new solutions specifically help CG companies compete in today's volatile economy?

Wadhwani: As I've shared, shoppers are continuing to change their purchasing patterns as the economic transformation continues. While some shoppers are backing off their most extreme cost-cutting behaviors that took place in quarters two and three of last year, they are still significantly focused on affordability. But, affordability takes many different forms, depending on the shopper's income, ethnicity, family composition and job situation. IRI Shopper Insights Powered by Liquid Data helps CG companies uncover how different shopper segments define "affordability" and then act immediately to create solutions that help them.

What does the future of innovation in CG look like?

Wadhwani: The future of innovation in CG will continue to be driven by an increasingly deeper understanding of consumers and shopper behaviors – who they are, what they buy and why.  Leveraging this highly-individualized information, manufacturers can then design marketing messages, pricing, promotions, assortments and loyalty programs that are uniquely relevant to consumers. The only way to achieve this level of true consumer-centric innovation is by integrating all the knowledge about consumers and shoppers into a single source, then applying predictive automated analytics to drive new insights.

source: www.consumergoods.com

CayTel 1 L.P. holds approximately 93.5% of the shares and 93.9% of the votes in Teleca AB (publ)

January 20, 2009

CayTel 1 L.P. (“CayTel”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Symphony Technology Group LLC, announced on October 31, 2008 a public offer to the shareholders of Teleca AB (publ) (“Teleca”) in accordance with the rules on mandatory bids (the “Offer”).

During the extended acceptance period, from January 14, 2009 up until (and including) January 16, 2009, the Offer was accepted by holders of 4,120,539 B-shares in Teleca, representing approximately 5.4% of the shares and 5.1% of the votes in Teleca. As a result, the Offer has been accepted by holders of in aggregate 33,459,915 B-shares in Teleca, representing approximately 43.5% of the shares and 41.2% of the votes in Teleca. During the extended acceptance period, CayTel has also acquired 29,928 B-shares outside the Offer representing 0.04% of the shares and 0.04% of the votes in Teleca.¹

CayTel’s total holding of Teleca shares, including shares tendered to the Offer and shares acquired other than through the Offer, therefore amounts to 475,555 A-shares and 71,388,988 B-shares in Teleca, representing approximately 93.5% of the shares and 93.9% of the votes in Teleca.

Payment of the Offer consideration to the shareholders who have accepted the Offer during the extended acceptance period is expected to commence on or around January 21, 2009.

As previously announced, CayTel intends to act in favour of a de-listing of Teleca as well as to initiate a squeeze-out procedure in respect of the Teleca shares not tendered to the Offer. CayTel may also acquire additional Teleca shares on the market.

CayTel has decided not to further extend the acceptance period of the Offer.

The offer document, as well as the supplement to the offer document, in Swedish and English and other information concerning the Offer are published on www.carnegie.se and www.SymphonyTG.com.

For further information contact:

John Treadwell, Principal

Symphony Technology Group

Tel +1-650-935-9529

www.SymphonyTG.com

CayTel 1 L.P., a wholly owned subsidiary of Symphony Technology Group LLC, announces a mandatory cash offer of SEK 3.25 per share in Teleca AB

Click here to download prospectus for offer to acquire shares of Teleca

* http://symphonytg.com/downloads/Erbjudandehandling.php
* http://symphonytg.com/downloads/Till__gg_till_erbjudandehandlingen_slutgiltig_version.php
* http://symphonytg.com/downloads/Supplement_to_offer_document_FINAL.php

31 October, 2008 08:40 CET

CayTel 1 L.P. ("CayTel"), has acquired 15,761,673 B shares in Teleca AB (publ) ("Teleca" or the "Company") after which CayTel owns 46.4% of the capital and 49.2% of the votes in the Company. CayTel is therefore making a public cash offer to the shareholders of Teleca to transfer all their B shares in Teleca to CayTel (the "Offer") in accordance with the rules on mandatory bids.[1] The B shares in Teleca are listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm (the “OMX”), Small Cap. CayTel is wholly owned by Symphony Technology Group LLC (”STG”), a U.S. investment company.

 

Summary

• CayTel is offering SEK 3.25 in cash per share in Teleca (the “Offer Price”).[2]

• The Offer Price represents a premium of 23.6% as compared with the closing price on 30 October 2008 and 44.4 % as compared with the volume-weighted average price for the Teleca share on the OMX during the most recent three months.

• CayTel has purchased 15,761,673 Class B shares, representing 20.5% of the capital and 19.4% of the votes in Teleca. These purchases have resulted in an increase in CayTel’s holding in Teleca to 46.4% of the capital and 49.2% of the votes.

• CayTel is the largest shareholder of Teleca.

• The acceptance period for the Offer is expected to commence on or around November 13, 2008 and end on or around December 4, 2008. Settlement of the Offer is expected to begin during the week beginning on December 15, 2008.[3]

”Teleca fits well with the investment strategy of STG. STG invests in companies with promising prospects that also include a lot of hard work to improve the business performance and achieve excellent results. We believe that Teleca can still be a solid opportunity and an attractive long-term investment. However, in the near term, we have been disappointed by the difficult market environment and the speed at which Teleca is making improvements. Teleca faces significant challenges and there remains much to accomplish in order to stabilize revenue and profitability, and to re-establish growth. STG believes that the measures and potential additional cash requirements needed to complete the transformation are better suited to being handled in a private, non-listed environment. Despite our disappointment with the performance so far, and the softer economic conditions with more uncertain prospects for the mobile telecommunications market's demand for Teleca’s products and services, STG has opted to increase our ownership in the company in order to more directly drive and fund the transformation agenda. As a consequence of the mandatory bid rules, we are now making this offer. Regardless of the level of acceptance of the bid, we intend to remain committed for the long-term as the largest owner of Teleca. Our objective is to contribute, together with the management and employees of Teleca, to re-architect the business model of Teleca around high-growth offshore driven engineering solutions for wireless devices.”, says John Tristan (J.T.) Treadwell, Principal at STG.'

[1] CayTel owns all A shares in Teleca and the Offer therefore only comprises the B shares in the Company.

[2] This amount is subject to adjustment should Teleca, prior to the cash settlement of the Offer, pay a dividend or in any other way transfer value to shareholders. Such adjustment shall correspond to the value transfer per share.

[3] Provided that necessary regulatory, governmental or similar clearances, approvals and decisions, including from competition authorities, have been obtained.

 

Background and reasons for the Offer

Teleca was founded in 2001 when Stockholm-listed Sigma was spun off into three companies; Sigma was renamed Teleca and incorporated Sigma’s former business area Embedded Solutions. Teleca has today become one of the leading companies in the field of software development services for the mobile communications industry.

Over the past two years, Teleca has started a significant transformation process. The Company has exited non-core product businesses while achieving growth and profitability in its services business. However, Teleca still has work to do to reach its destination model of consistent high growth and consistent high profitability – driven by an offshore solutions oriented organization where the Company drives larger and high-value projects from low-cost resources, and complemented by high value, high competence local capabilities. Due to the macroeconomic environment, this road will be uncertain in 2008 and 2009.

 

During 2008, Teleca has taken significant steps as part of its transformation process, including the following:

- On 13 October, Teleca announced the divestment of 95% of the shares in its products business with a related services business in Korea, following the April 2007 decision to discontinue the investments into its software products business to eliminate the risk of continued losses in the product business;

- On 19 September, Teleca announced the sale of its French subsidiary;

- In early fall, Teleca opened up an office in India.

The STG Group has been the largest shareholder of Teleca since 12 February 2008, when CayTel acquired the share interest of Teleca’s founders and board members Dan Olofsson (through Danir AB) and Konstantin Caliacmanis. Despite a weaker economy with more uncertain prospects for the market's demand for Teleca's products and services, STG believes that with investment and focus, Teleca has the assets and capabilities to become a compelling investment over the long term and has therefore decided to increase its ownership in Teleca. Since the share acquisitions have led to CayTel now owning over 30% of the capital and the votes in Teleca, CayTel is making this Offer today in accordance with the provisions governing mandatory bids.

STG places great value on the work done by Teleca's management team and employees. It intends to continue to protect the strong relationship Teleca has with its employees and customers, and considers itself a partner in Teleca’s development. STG’s intention is to continue to be committed as the largest shareholder of the Company, to be an involved partner in Teleca’s changes, and to work for Teleca's continued transformation into a highly profitable, fast-growing Company. The Offer itself will not have a significant impact on the employment, or terms of employment, for Teleca’s employees in the locations where Teleca has operations, even though it cannot be ruled out that employees, and terms of employment, may be affected if STG finds further cost cutting actions, in addition to the measures already taken, necessary.

 

About STG

STG is a Palo Alto, California based investment firm that exclusively invests in the enterprise software and technology services market, helping their portfolio companies maximize growth, operational efficiencies, and innovation. STG currently has a portfolio of nine companies with combined revenue of USD 2.5 billion and in aggregate 15,000 employees. STG has recently established a new fund that manages capital in the amount of USD 900 million.

Some of Symphony's previous investments have included Information Resources, Inc., Intentia AB, Symphony Services Corporation, and Aldata Solution. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation.

 

The Offer

CayTel has decided to announce a cash offer to the shareholders in Teleca to tender all their outstanding shares in Teleca to CayTel. The shares in Teleca are listed on OMX, Small Cap.

CayTel offers SEK 3.25 in cash per share in Teleca.[4] The Offer values Teleca's share capital at approximately SEK 250 million. The total value of the Offer amounts to approximately SEK 134 million based on the current number of outstanding shares in Teleca amounting to 41,209,424 excluding the Teleca shares already held by CayTel.

No commission will be charged in the Offer.

Based on the latest closing price for the Teleca share on OMX of SEK 2.63 on Thursday, 30 October 2008, the Offer Price represents a premium of 23.6%. Compared to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) for the Teleca share during the last ten trading days up until and including Thursday, 30 October 2008, the Offer Price represents a premium of 45.7%. The premium to the three-month VWAP amounts to 44.4%.

The purchase agreements under which CayTel purchased Teleca shares immediately prior to this annnouncement provide that the sellers of these shares will in certain circumstances be compensated if CayTel sells the shares to a competing bidder. Teleca shareholders who accept the Offer are therefore given the same right to compensation. As a result, Teleca shareholders who accept the Offer will be compensated if a competing public offer for Teleca is announced prior to completion of the Offer and CayTel:

1. accepts such competing offer in respect of shares tendered in the Offer, or

2. sells shares tendered in the Offer to the competing bidder on or prior to 30 April 2009.

As with the purchase agreements above, any compensation that CayTel will pay to the Teleca shareholders is conditional on a transaction set out in item 1 and 2 above being completed and will in such case amount to 80 % of the difference between the price per share received by CayTel and the price paid in the Offer.

CayTel’s shareholding in Teleca

CayTel is the largest shareholder of Teleca, owning 475,555 Class A shares and 35,642,584 Class B shares, corresponding to 46.4% of the capital and 49.2% of the votes.[5]

On 14 September 2008 the Swedish Securities Council issued a statement (Statement 2008:33) through which the Securities Council confirmed that the consideration in the Offer does not need to be adjusted to the price paid by CayTel in connection with acquisitions of Teleca shares in the spring 2008 and that the consideration in the Offer therefore shall be the highest price paid by CayTel in connection with the purchases of Teleca shares made thereafter.[6] CayTel has acquired additional shares in Teleca on 22 October 2008 at a price lower than the price paid in respect of the purchases immediately prior to the announcement of the Offer. The price paid in respect of the purchases of Teleca shares immediately prior to the announcement of the Offer is equal to the Offer Price of SEK 3.25.

 

Related parties

The Chairman of the Teleca board, Chet Kamat, is also a Managing Director at STG. John (J.T.) Treadwell, who is a member of the Teleca board, is also a Principal at STG. These directors are therefore considered acting for STG in the Offer. As a consequence, Chet Kamat and J.T. Treadwell will not participate in Teleca’s Board of Directors' handling of or resolutions concerning the Offer.

[4] This amount is subject to adjustment should Teleca, prior to the cash settlement of the Offer, pay a dividend or in any other way transfer value to shareholders. Such adjustment shall correspond to the value transfer per share.

[5] CayTel previously had additional economic exposure in Teleca through cash-settled derivative contracts (contracts for differences). As previously made public, these contracts for differences were terminated as a result of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander has been placed in administration by the British financial authorities.

[6] Due to the very significant and not only temporary decline in the quoted price of the Teleca share, CayTel is not required to comply with item II.10 first paragraph of the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm’s Rules concerning Public Offers on the Stock Market.

 

Condition of the Offer

The Offer is conditional upon that, with respect to the Offer and the acquisition of Teleca, all necessary regulatory, governmental or similar clearances, approvals and decisions, including from competition authorities, have been received, in each case on terms which, in CayTel’s opinion, are acceptable.

CayTel reserves the right to withdraw the Offer in the event it becomes clear that the condition above has not been satisfied or cannot be satisfied. However, such withdrawal will only be made if the non-satisfaction of the condition is of material importance to CayTel's acquisition of shares in Teleca.

CayTel reserves the right to waive, in whole or in part, the condition above.

 

Description of CayTel and the financing of the Offer

CayTel is a limited partnership incorporated under the laws of Cayman Islands with its registered office at c/o Walkers SPV Limited, Walker House, 87 Mary street, George Town, Grand Cayman KY1-9002, Cayman Islands. CayTel is wholly owned by STG, a Palo Alto, California based investment firm that exclusively invests in the enterprise software and technology services market. CayTel, with corporate registration number WK-24186, was founded on 14 February 2008, and registered with the the Registrar of Limited Partnerships on Cayman Islands on 14 February 2008. CayTel has been established for the purpose of holding Teleca shares, making and completing the Offer and, following completion of the Offer, operating as parent company of Teleca. CayTel does not operate, and has not operated, any business except as set out above.

The Offer is not subject to any financing condition and will be financed by using existing funds and credit facilities within the STG group. STG has irrevocably and unconditionally committed to provide CayTel with the financing necessary to finance the purchases of Teleca shares under the Offer.

The management and employees of Teleca

CayTel and its owners attribute great value to Teleca’s management and employees and intend to continue to safeguard the excellent relations with Teleca’s employees that CayTel and its owner believe exist at Teleca today.

 

Preliminary timetable

Offer document made public: On or around November 10, 2008

Acceptance period: On or around November 13, 2008

until on or around December 4, 2008

Estimated settlement: Week starting with December 15, 2008[7]

CayTel reserves the right to extend the acceptance period. An extension of the acceptance period will not affect the settlement date for those Teleca shareholders who have already accepted the Offer, although settlement will not commence until necessary regulatory, governmental or similar clearances, approvals and decisions, including from competition authorities, have been obtained.

The Offer document will be distributed to the Teleca shareholders in connection with it being made public.

The acquisition of Teleca requires clearances from relevant competition authorities.

[7] Provided that necessary regulatory, governmental or similar clearances, approvals and decisions, including from competition authorities, have been obtained

 

Compulsory acquisition and de-listing

If CayTel becomes the owner of shares representing more than 90 % of the shares in Teleca, CayTel intends to initiate a compulsory acquisition procedure under the Swedish Companies Act. In connection therewith, CayTel intends to act in favour of a de-listing of the Teleca share from OMX.

 

Applicable law and disputes

CayTel has, in accordance with the Swedish Act on Public Takeover Offers on the Stock Market (lag (2006:451) om offentliga uppköpserbjudanden på aktiemarknaden), undertaken to the OMX, and hereby undertakes to the holders of Teleca shares, to comply with OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm’s Rules concerning Public Offers on the Stock Market (the “Takeover Rules”) and the Swedish Securities Council’s Rulings regarding the interpretation and application of the Takeover Rules[8], and to submit to the sanctions that may be imposed by the OMX upon a breach of the Takeover Rules.

The Offer shall be governed by the laws of Sweden. The courts of Sweden shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with the Offer and the City Court of Stockholm shall be the court of first instance.

The Offer is not being made (nor will any tender of shares be accepted from or on behalf of holders) in any jurisdiction in which the making of the Offer or the acceptance of any tender of shares therein would not be made in compliance with the laws of such jurisdiction or where the making or acceptance of shares tendered under the Offer requires further offer document, filings or other measures in addition to those required under Swedish law, except where there is an applicable exemption. The Offer is not being made, directly or indirectly, in or into , the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand or South Africa,

 

Advisors

CayTel and its owners have engaged Carnegie Investment Bank AB to act as its financial advisors, and Mannheimer Swartling to act as its legal advisors in connection with the Offer.

 

Stockholm 31 October 2008

 

CayTel 1 L.P.

 

For further information visit www.SymphonyTG.com or contact:

John Treadwell, Principal
Symphony Technology Group
+1-650-935-9529

[8] This includes, where applicable, the Securities Council’s former rulings with respect to the interpretation and the application of the rules on public offers for the acquisition of shares issued by the Swedish Industry and Commerce Stock Exchange Committee.

The Offer is not being made, and this press release may not be distributed, directly or indirectly, in or into, nor will any tender of shares be accepted from or on behalf of holders in, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand or South Africa, or any other jurisdiction in which the making of the Offer, the distribution of this press release or the acceptance of any tender of shares would contravene applicable laws or regulations or require further offer documents, filings or other measures in addition to those required under Swedish law. This press release has been announced in Swedish and English. In the event of any discrepancy, the Swedish language version shall prevail.

Symphony Technology lines up $900 mn for acquisitions

by Shivani Shinde & Kalpana Pathak
Mumbai September 30, 2008, 0:23 IST

Symphony Technology Group (STG), the US-based strategic holding company founded by an Indian, plans to invest $900 million (around Rs 4,230 crore) to expand its group firms over the next three to four years.

“Most of the $900 million will be spent on acquisitions. The current economic environment does not change our strategy, which is to invest in companies in the US, Europe and India,” Romesh Wadhwani, chairman, STG, told Business Standard. Wadhwani had earlier said that his acquisition targets are from software and services, financial services, retail, consumer goods and telecom verticals.

The over $2-billion company wants to achieve a revenue target of $5 billion by 2010-11, and believes the acquisition route to be just right to achieve this target. Wadhwani feels that despite the current slowdown it is an achievable target. “I am still hopeful that STG can be a $5- billion revenue firm in 2010 or 2011, but we have a lot of work ahead of us to get there,” he said. “I am hopeful that the economic recession in the US will affect Symphony less than the traditional IT services players since its customers are less affected by the recession,” he added.

The group so far has nine companies including Bangalore-based Symphony Services and Symphony Marketing Solutions. Of these, nine firms, many have significant offshore presence in India.

STG had raised $1 billion in December last year, of which $500 million was contributed by Wadhwani, while around $300 million came from the Government of Singapore and $100 million each from two US universities.

Of the $1 billion raised, the company has spent $100 million for the acquisition of US-based Netik and Sweden-headquartered Teleca.

Wadhwani also said that he hopes to list Symphony Services by 2009 as long as its maintains its growth rate and keeps improving its profitability.

Symphony Technology Group Appoints 20-Year Industry Veteran Jose Rivero as Managing Director and Operating Partner

Rivero to Apply Extensive Operations Background to Work with STG Group Companies Worldwide

PALO ALTO, Calif. - August 8, 2008 - Symphony Technology Group (STG), a strategic holding company and private equity investor in enterprise software and services businesses, today announced that Jose Rivero has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Operating Partner. At STG, Rivero will partner with the management teams of Symphony Technology Group portfolio companies worldwide to help them build great companies through business transformation.

Rivero joins STG from Accenture, where he was the Global Managing Director of the firm's Custom Business Process Outsourcing Services division. As Global Managing Director, Rivero managed all aspects of this business, which provides client-specific business process outsourcing solutions to government, financial services, high tech, communications and other markets worldwide.

"Bringing Jose on board extends our commitment to work with the leaders of our portfolio companies to help them take their business performance to the next level through operational transformation and by driving new value for clients through innovation," said STG Chairman and CEO Romesh Wadhwani. "Since founding STG in 2002, we have taken a unique approach to private equity investing -- we partner with our Group companies to identify areas where we can apply best practices in operations and technology innovation to accelerate both the revenue growth rate and profitability of their businesses. Jose has spent more than 20 years in the industry developing and executing the same kinds of solutions with growing companies worldwide. We welcome him to the team."

"I'm eager to build upon the success and innovation that Romesh and the STG team have accomplished during the last six years," said Jose Rivero. "I look forward to working with existing and new STG Group companies to increase operational excellence and deliver greater value to their customers."

Before joining Accenture in 2005, Rivero spent eight years with Automatic Data Processing (ADP), where he held a number of positions. He most recently was the Senior Vice President of the Automotive Claims Services (ACS) Division, the North American business with 1,000 employees.

Prior to his stint with ADP, Rivero was a Senior Engagement Manager for McKinsey & Company, based in New York and New Jersey. During his six years with McKinsey, Rivero led multiple consulting projects in areas such as telecom, electronics, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, etc. Rivero also worked internationally for Arthur D. Little and Allis Chalmers.

Rivero holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a M.S. in Engineering and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About Symphony Technology Group Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic holding company with the mission of being an investor and partner in helping to build great companies in software and services. STG currently has a portfolio of nine companies with combined revenue of $ 2.5 billion and 15,000 employees. STG Group portfolio companies include Information Resources, Inc., Symphony Services, Symphony Metreo, Symphony Marketing Solutions, Aldata, Capco, Teleca, Netik, and Lawson Software (in which STG is a minority investor). Through its new $900 million private equity fund, STG has a large amount of capital ready to invest in software and services businesses. STG is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. For more information visit www.symphonytg.com.

For more information contact:

Carol Sacks
Tenor Communications
carol@tenorcom.com
650.520.8261

Symphony Technology Group buys equity stake in Teleca
from Danir AB and Konstantin Caliacmanis

PALO ALTO, Calif. - February 12, 2008 - Symphony Technology Group ("STG") has acquired the share interests of Teleca founders and board members Dan Olofsson through Danir AB and Konstantin Caliacmanis. The combined agreements represent 8,669,982 Series B shares and 655,000 Series A shares - and when completed, the purchase by STG will represent 14.9% of the Teleca shares outstanding, and 22.1% of the vote. In conjunction with this investment, STG will seek to nominate its representatives to join the Board of Directors.

"We are excited to have STG take such a large position in Teleca," said Teleca CEO Rene Svendsen-Tune. "We consider it a strong vote of confidence in our company and in our market. We view STG as a strategic investor who can bring the substantial operating experience of its partners to assist Teleca. Also, with a long history of building great outsourcing companies, we know STG will help us grow our global delivery platform. As a result, we think STG is uniquely qualified to help us achieve our ambition of becoming the largest provider of outsourced software development services to the world's leading wireless companies."

Over the past two years, Teleca has started a significant transformation. It has exited non-core product businesses while achieving growth and profitability in its mobile services business. Today, Teleca is among the world's leading companies in the field of software development services for the mobile communications industry. Teleca serves leading wireless companies including Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Kyocera. It also sells to leading technology companies focused on the wireless industry including Microsoft, ST Microelectronics and UIQ.

"Teleca is an ideal investment for STG," said Symphony Technology Group Chairman Romesh Wadhwani. "Since I started STG we have focused exclusively on software and services companies that are undergoing significant transformation. We have helped our portfolio companies generate substantial amounts of shareholder value by pairing the operational capabilities of our partners with intelligent offshoring strategies that have enabled our companies to deliver high value services on a global basis thereby redefining the customer value proposition to our clients. We believe we have a lot to contribute to Teleca's growth, and see immense opportunities to help them become the leading company in this market."

Dan Olofsson and Konstantin Caliacmanis were effectively co-founders of Teleca after they merged their two companies 1996. Dan Olofsson commented, "I have enjoyed my association with Teleca over the years. As a founder, I am pleased to see that it has reached such a position of prominence in the wireless industry. At this time, however, I am focused on other personal endeavors and it is time for Teleca to take on strategic investors that can take it to the next level. I am convinced that STG is the right investor for Teleca at this stage of development."

Earlier today Teleca also announced an issuance of SEK 150 million in primary shares underwritten by Symphony. That capital, plus internally generated cash flow, will allow Teleca to take advantage of organic growth opportunities in the market and to explore strategic acquisitions.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a Palo Alto, California based investment firm that exclusively invests in the enterprise software and technology services market, helping their portfolio companies maximize growth, operational efficiencies, and innovation. Some of Symphony's previous investments have included Information Resources, Inc., Intentia AB, Symphony Services Corporation, and Aldata Solution. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation.

For more information contact:

John Treadwell, Principal
Symphony Technology Group
+1-650-935-9529

Netik completes Buyout from The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Acquires Capco Reference Data Services with private equity investment from Symphony Technology Group

Netik extends business to include Investor Services functions for Reference and Market Data, to provide pre-populated data marts/warehouses

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - February 11, 2008 - Netik LLC, a leading financial software company delivering data warehouse solutions for data management and reporting, completed a buyout of the Netik business from The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and simultaneously acquired Capco Reference Data Services (CRDS) from Capco. The transaction was achieved through a strategic investment by Palo Alto based Symphony Technology Group (STG).

Netik has known for some time that the Netik solution for Reporting and Data Management should be provided as both software and as a service. CRDS is a specialized Business Services Provider (BSP) for reference and market data and has understood the need for a 'Container' of data at the client site to facilitate data distribution to downstream systems. The union of these two businesses is thus highly complimentary and is unique in our market place, as the combined service and product will provide the capability to a) pre-populate the data warehouse with reference and market data; and b) to continually maintain the reference and market data content by Netik performing as a Business Service Provider.

This unique, end-to-end, proposition promises powerful market impact and tremendous synergy. The new business is lead by John Wise as Chief Executive Officer and Colin Close as President. Marlin & Associates New York LLC were exclusive strategic and financial advisor to the Netik management team.

John Wise, CEO and original founder, Netik, comments: “Netik’s focus as a data warehouse company for data management and reporting in the investment industry has resulted in a blue chip customer base that includes leading Asset Managers, Prime Brokers, Fund Administrators, Outsourcers and Custodians along with strategic partnerships with Advent Software’s Geneva® and Thomson Financial’s PORTIA. CRDS has excellence in market and reference data operations - aggregating and cleansing over 100 source feeds and supplying information to 9 out of the top 10 securities firms globally. Netik’s clients and prospects are keen for Netik to provide pre-populated multi source and multi view reference data content to data warehouses/marts and deliver this via fully managed services (BSP). Equally critical is removing the need for handling dozens of source data feeds that require programmers and operational resources to deliver what is now an off-the-shelf service provided by Netik. We believe this exclusive combination of excellence in software and services will result in Netik’s ability to offer a unique solution to address market and reference data.”

William Chisholm, Managing Director, Symphony Technology Group, states: “We are excited by the opportunity to work with Netik management to capitalize on Netik’s positioning as a leading supplier of data management and reporting solutions to the investment industry, as well as the opportunity to combine this capability with CRDS to deliver compelling value to the entire global securities market place.”

Bernard Horn, long-serving non-executive Director, Netik LLC and ex-main board director of NatWest Group, adds: “Netik has enjoyed great success providing solutions to leading financial institutions as a software technology company. The management teams of both Netik and CRDS have a long heritage with hundreds of years of combined experience in the securities industry. By combining these two highly skilled teams, a new and powerful force is created that understands the market and the need to improve data, information and operations automation within our industry. This is a services as well as a technology play that is an exciting evolution for the business and we all expect the new Netik to do very well.”

Post the acquisition, Netik has over 260 staff in five regions: California, New York, London, Dubai and Bangalore servicing over 80 financial institutions in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.

About Netik
Netik (www.netik.com) is a data warehouse solutions company for data management and reporting. Netik’s focus is in financial information automation, aimed at increasing efficiencies, reducing risk and improving client service for the asset management, broker, custodial, fund administration, prime brokerage and wealth management/private banking markets within the Securities and Banking Industry.

Netik’s value proposition is focused on solving the perennial problems associated with how financial firms manage and derive valuable, reliable information from internal and external data. Netik solutions address the fundamental requirements for integration, cleansing, rationalization and reconciliation of data from an ever increasing numbers of sources, coupled with the need to warehouse and deliver data as accurate information for primary front-line business usage.

Netik offers these solutions as software, via ASP, fully outsourced services (BSP and BPO) and boutique information acquisition and delivery services for Indexes and ETFs.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic holding company that helps companies maximize operational efficiencies in the enterprise software and services market, with a particular focus on the retail and consumer packaged goods industries. With years of deep operational experience to draw upon, STG companies can leverage strong personal networks, vast financial and operational resources and a history of excellence to empower their clients' success today and tomorrow. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., STG is a $1.2 billion strategic holding company that employs more than 7,000 employees worldwide across its companies. For more information, visit http://www.symphonytg.com.

For more information contact:

William Chisholm
Symphony Technology Group
+1 (650) 906 9771
bill@symphonytg.com

Jennifer Massing
MassingPR, LLC for Netik
+1 (917) 293 2405
jenm@massingpr.com

Ivan Royle
BNY Mellon Corporation
+44 (0) 207 163 3230
iroyle@bnymellon.com

STG raises $1B fund to acquire new companies

Symphony Marketing Solutions Launches Global Operations from Bangalore

IRI Names John Freeland President and Chief Executive Officer

Senior Executive from salesforce.com and Accenture Succeeds Scott W. Klein; Klein Joins IRI Parent Symphony Technology Group as Operating Partner

CHICAGO, Sept. 27, 2007 - Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a leading global provider of information, insights and decision solutions for the consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare and retail industries, today announced that John Freeland, President-Worldwide Operations for salesforce.com, will join IRI as President and Chief Executive Officer effective October 1. He succeeds Scott W. Klein, who has served as President and CEO since January 2004 and is joining Symphony Technology Group as an operating partner while working with Mr. Freeland to ensure a seamless transition.

John Freeland brings over 28 years of enterprise information solutions and services experience to his role at IRI. At salesforce.com, Mr. Freeland was responsible for the company's Successforce portfolio of services and business alliances. Salesforce.com is one of the most successful software-as-a-service companies and has had one of the most successful IPO’s in recent years. Prior to joining salesforce.com, Mr. Freeland was Accenture’s Global Managing Partner leading and growing its global CRM practice from $ 1.2 billion to $ 3.7 billion during his tenure. He was also responsible for launching Accenture’s Market Sciences unit and served as managing partner responsible for building Accenture’s global insurance practice into an $ 800 million business. During his 26-year career at Accenture, Mr. Freeland was also appointed a member of Accenture’s executive committee. Mr. Freeland has a B.A. in Economics and an MBA from Columbia University.

“All of us at IRI are delighted to have a leader of John’s stature and experience join as President and CEO,” said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, IRI’s owner and Chairman of Symphony Technology Group. “IRI has performed well in the last four years since its acquisition by Symphony and has established strong industry momentum and a reputation for innovation. We now need to supercharge our growth and profitability by driving new revenue and increased value for our clients, leveraging existing and new high-value solutions that combine our content, analytics and technology. John has made a career out of doing this at Accenture and Salesforce.com and will do it again at IRI.”

“I am thrilled to join IRI. This is a company with extraordinary talent, strong client relationships, deep domain expertise, and tremendous assets in content, analytics, and technology,” said Mr. Freeland. “I believe IRI’s growth prospects are very strong including many new and untapped areas of opportunity, and I am pleased to be working with such a visionary, passionate, and highly motivated leadership team. I also look forward to working closely with the worldwide IRI organization and its partners in addressing the most important pain points and needs of our clients.”

“In the end, it is all about delivering breakthrough insights that drive dramatic revenue growth and productivity for our clients,” added Dr. Wadhwani. “John is superbly equipped to lead this charge.”

About Information Resources, Inc.
IRI is the world’s leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market information, insights and decision solutions to 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare and retail companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market and shopper information, automated analytics and predictive insights, innovative technology, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading manufacturers and retailers are able to drive their growth by quickly discovering breakthrough insights, making smarter decisions, taking faster actions across the enterprise, and achieving breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for technology and solutions that enable brand building, successful new product launches, consumer-driven merchandising/retail execution and consumer and shopper relationship management. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.

IRI CONTACTS:
John McIndoe E-mail: john.mcindoe@infores.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Fax: (312) 474-3420

Metreo and SymphonyRPM Combine to Form Symphony-Metreo

Two leading enterprise software providers join forces to deliver innovative, customer-focused pricing and performance management solutions to market

Palo Alto, CA - Jan. 10, 2006 - Metreo Corporation, a leading enterprise pricing solution provider and SymphonyRPM, an industry leader in performance management technology and solutions, announced today that they have combined their operations. Working in partnership since February, 2006 as members of the Symphony Technology Group (STG), both companies see value in combining resources and technology to deliver innovative Enterprise Pricing and Performance Management solutions to the market. The resulting company will be named Symphony-Metreo and will remain a subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group.

The merger combines the front-line strengths of Metreo, price planning, intelligence, optimization and execution, with SymphonyRPM's technology and expertise in forward-looking planning, forecasting, analytics and performance management. The new company will have the tools and experience to provide immediate benefits to current customers, while creating a compelling new vision for customers who are looking for an innovative technology partner to help them achieve their business objectives.

"We are excited about our ability to bring innovative customer focused pricing solutions to the industry," said Jim Clayton, CEO of Metreo. "Organizations are looking for pricing solutions that allow them to bridge the gap between operational planning and performance and price execution, giving them the ability to meet their financial goals and commitments. The synergies created by merging Metreo and SymphonyRPM into a significant new entity, will allow us to deliver immediate benefit to our customers."

"The combination of SymphonyRPM and Metreo is completely complimentary for both companies," said Bennett Indart, vice president of products, SymphonyRPM. "Since joining STG in February of last year, Metreo has worked together with SymphonyRPM on several fronts to bring valuable solutions to market leveraging both companies experience and technology. This merger is a logical next step."

About Metreo
Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Metreo is the leading provider of comprehensive price planning, intelligence, optimization and execution solutions that demystify and add discipline to the entire pricing process, enabling manufacturers and distributors to drive more profit to the bottom line. Customers include industry leaders such as Grainger, Honeywell, Oncology Therapeutics Network and Owens Corning. Metreo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group, a $1.2 billion strategic holding company. More information is available at http://www.metreo.com.

About SymphonyRPM
SymphonyRPM is the only integrated enterprise platform for enabling forward-looking performance management and predictive business analytics solutions. Through its patented next generation business application development environment, the company synchronizes operational planning and execution across the organization and accelerates time-to-market and value. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, SymphonyRPM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group, a $1.2 billion strategic holding company. For additional information, visit http://www.symphonyrpm.com.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic holding company that helps companies maximize operational efficiencies in the enterprise software and services market. With years of deep operational experience to draw upon, STG companies can leverage strong personal networks, vast financial and operational resources and a history of excellence to empower their clients’ success today and tomorrow. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., STG is a $1.2 billion strategic holding company that employs more than 7,000 employees worldwide across its companies. For more information, visit www.symphonytg.com.

Capco’s management and Symphony Technology Group to purchase all the outstanding shares in Capco

As part of the deal, Capco gets access to STG’s financial resources, technology and data analytics capabilities, and offshore delivery model

Palo Alto/ New York/ London/Bangalore- Sept. 7, 2006 - Capco, the global provider of integrated transformation services and solutions for the financial services industry, today announced that the Capco management team and Symphony Technology Group (STG) are to purchase all outstanding shares in Capco.

"This transaction is evidence of the management's belief in the growth opportunities for Capco," said Rob Heyvaert, Chairman and CEO of Capco. "STG are similarly committed to growing this business. Their investment and support will strengthen our financial resources. We will also leverage their software development and global delivery capabilities, which in conjunction with Capco's current capabilities, enable us to accelerate the growth of our managed services businesses and to expand our technology transformation capabilities."

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, STG is a strategic holding company with $1.2 billion in revenues and more than 7,000 employees worldwide across its companies. It focuses its investments in growing businesses in the software and services markets. STG's portfolio companies leverage the Group’s financial and operational resources to achieve revenue growth through innovation.

For STG, the deal represents a significant investment in areas identified as key growth opportunities: the financial services industry, the market for industry specific application integration services, and business process outsourcing (BPO)/managed services."

"Industry expertise and a global consulting capability are key to building a successful tier-one solutions provider to the financial services industry," said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman, Symphony Technology Group. "Capco has those capabilities as well as a strong portfolio of managed services solutions, a significant opportunity to expand the technology services business and a talented team. The combination makes for an exciting growth opportunity in one of largest industry segments and a valuable addition to our portfolio."

About Capco
Capco is a leading global provider of integrated transformation services and solutions designed specifically for the financial services industry. These services - business and technology consulting, processing services, and technology solutions - leverage Capco's deep expertise in the corporate and investment banking, asset management, hedge fund and retail financial services segments. For more information, please visit www.capco.com.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic holding company that helps companies maximize operational efficiencies in the enterprise software and services market. With years of deep operational experience to draw upon, STG companies can leverage strong personal networks, vast financial and operational resources and a history of excellence to empower their clients’ success today and tomorrow. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., STG is a $1.2 billion strategic holding company that employs more than 7,000 employees worldwide across its companies.

STG companies are well known for providing high value, high impact solutions that help customers dramatically improve their performance, productivity and profitability through best-of-class processes and management. STG companies include:

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) - one of the world’s leading providers of enterprise market information solutions offering a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software and professional services;
Symphony Services - a global provider of collaborative, full lifecycle-outsourcing solutions for software product development and analytic processes;
SymphonyRPM - a provider of forward-looking performance management and predictive business analytics solutions; Metreo - a leading provider of comprehensive pricing intelligence, optimization and execution solutions; and
Intentia - one of the world's largest ERP companies, which is currently merging with Lawson Software.
For more information, visit www.symphonytg.com.

Lawson Software and Intentia International Complete Combination

Acceptance Period for The Offer is Extended to Permit Late Tenders

Combined Company is a New Leader in Enterprise Applications, Serving 4,000 Customers in 40 Countries

ST. PAUL, Minn., and STOCKHOLM, Sweden - April 25, 2006 - Lawson Software, Inc. ("Lawson") (Nasdaq: LWSN) and Intentia International ("Intentia") (XSSE: INT B) today announced the fulfillment of conditions of the offer and the completion of their combination. Holders of shares and warrants in Intentia, representing 5,119,604 shares of series A, 157,505,164 shares of series B, and 23,000,000 warrants, corresponding to approximately 97.4 percent of the shares and approximately 97.9 percent of the votes in Intentia on a fully diluted basis (including all shares issuable pursuant to outstanding warrants but excluding shares issuable pursuant to outstanding convertible securities), accepted Lawson’s offer to exchange their shares and warrants for newly issued shares of Lawson common stock (the “Exchange Offer”). Lawson has also completed its reorganization merger in connection with the combination. All conditions for the completion of the Exchange Offer have been satisfied and settlement of the Exchange Offer, whereby holders of shares and warrants in Intentia will receive VPC-registered Lawson common stock in exchange, is expected to commence promptly.

Lawson was approved for a secondary listing at the Stockholm Stock Exchange on April 24, 2006. VPC-registered Lawson common stock will commence trading on the Swedish Stock Exchange under the symbol LWSN as soon as practicable after settlement of the Exchange Offer. Following Lawson’s holding company reorganization, which will be effective as of the open of trading on Nasdaq on April 25, 2006, Lawson common stock will continue to trade on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol LWSN and will be assigned a new CUSIP (52078P102). No new certificates will be issued as a result of the reorganization, and holders of Lawson common stock will not need to exchange any certificates representing the Lawson common stock they hold.

To enable those holders of shares in Intentia who have not yet tendered their shares to participate in the Exchange Offer, the Exchange Offer has been further extended up to and including May 5, 2006, 5:00 p.m. (CET). Shares tendered during the extended acceptance period are expected to settle commencing the week following the expiration of the extended acceptance period. After the extension, Lawson intends to initiate compulsory acquisition proceedings regarding the shares that have not been tendered in the Exchange Offer.

New Company is a Leader in Enterprise Applications
The combination of Lawson and Intentia creates a global leader in enterprise applications with approximately 4,000 customers in more than 40 countries. “As we close this chapter on the merger exercise, we begin the task of executing our plans and fulfilling the promise of a new, larger, stronger, global Lawson,” said Harry Debes, Lawson Software’s president and chief executive officer. “We are convinced that the market wants legitimate and credible choices and this combination makes us a strong contender in numerous markets around the globe.”

About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides business application software and consulting services to services organizations in the healthcare, retail, government and education, banking and insurance and other markets. Lawson's software suites include enterprise performance management, distribution, financials, human capital management, procurement, retail operations and service process optimization. With headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., Lawson has offices and affiliates serving North and South America, Europe, and Africa. Lawson Software and Lawson are registered trademarks of Lawson Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

About Intentia
Intentia is the only global enterprise solutions provider 100% dedicated to bringing software applications and consulting services to companies whose core processes involve manufacturing, distribution and maintenance--what we call the "make, move and maintain" market.

100% of our resources are committed to this market.
100% of our software is designed for this market.
100% of our experience is in serving this market.

Intentia was founded in 1984 and serves over 3,000 customer sites in some 40 countries around the world. Our business solutions currently comprise enterprise management, supplier relationship management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, value chain collaboration, enterprise performance management and workplace management.

Intentia is a public company traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (XSSE) under the symbol INT B. Visit Intentia's website at www.lawson.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that contain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements contain statements of intent, belief or current expectations of Lawson and its management, and Intentia and its management. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The companies are not obligated to update forward-looking statements based on circumstances or events that occur in the future. Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: uncertainties in Lawson’s ability to realize synergies and revenue opportunities anticipated from the Intentia International acquisition; uncertainties in the software industry; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks in the United States, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company's targeted service industries; increased competition and other risk factors listed in the company's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and as included in Lawson Holding’s Form S-4 Proxy Statement/Prospectus filed with the Commission.

Additional Information and Where to Find It
Lawson has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 containing a proxy statement/prospectus in connection with the proposed acquisition of Intentia by Lawson pursuant to the terms of the Transaction Agreement by and between Lawson and Intentia. On or about March 22, 2006, the proxy statement/prospectus was mailed to the stockholders of Lawson and Intentia security holders who are U.S. persons. Lawson has also filed and registered a prospectus with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. The security holders of Lawson and Intentia are urged to read the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials because they contain important information about the offer. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of these documents and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Lawson by going to Lawson's Investor Relations page on its corporate website at www.lawson.com.

Lawson and its directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Lawson in connection with the transaction described herein. Information regarding the special interests of these directors and executive officers in the transaction described herein will be included in the proxy statement/prospectus described above. Additional information regarding these directors and executive officers is also included in Lawson's proxy statement, which was also filed as part of the Form S-4 submission filed with the SEC. This document is available free of charge by contacting the SEC or Lawson as indicated above.

For more information, please contact:

Lawson Software
Terry Blake
Media
+1-651-767-4766
terry.blake@lawson.com

Intentia
Niklas Björkqvist
General Counsel
Telephone: +46 8 5552 5249
Fax: +46 8 5552 5999
Cell phone: +46 733 27 5249
niklas.bjorkqvist@intentia.se

Lawson Software
Barbara Doyle
Investor Relations
+1-651-767-4385
barbara.doyle@lawson.com

Intentia
Micaela Sjökvist
Investor Relations
Telephone: +46 8 5552 5000
Cell phone: +46 70 698 6646
micaela.sjokvist@intentia.se

Symphony Technology Group sells GERS to Ecometry to Form Escalate Retail

Symphony Technology Group Acquires ImmediateFX

Acquisition of Continuous Marketing Measurement Firm Extends Group's Family of Companies Providing Market-Leading Analytics Solutions

Palo Alto, Calif. - Feb. 28, 2006 - Symphony Technology Group (STG), a strategic software and services holding company led by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, today announced that it has acquired the assets of ImmediateFX, LLC (IFX), an analytics-based marketing services consultancy that delivers continuous marketing measurement solutions. Under the terms of the deal, IFX will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group. IFX President and Chief Executive Officer James R. Friedman will join Symphony Technology Group as chief analytics officer.

"Continuous marketing measurement provides organizations with the deep insight to make better decisions and IFX's integrated analytics platform helps companies generate maximum return on investment from their marketing initiatives,” said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, chairman, Symphony Technology Group. “We believe that predictive applications are key to increasing business performance and that IFX has the right solution from which to build on to enable clients to achieve optimal marketing performance."

IFX's mission is to provide an unparalleled combination of service and technology-enabled analytic platforms that will increase its clients' marketing effectiveness and ROI. IFX fulfills this goal through the use of highly-skilled experienced people, automated data integration tools and sophisticated software applications that transform unwieldy and disparate data into high payout marketing analysis and insight. STG is making this investment because IFX has proven its ability to help organizations improve their marketing performance and its market opportunity is significant across the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, retail and service industries.

"IFX's approach to continuous marketing measurement hits at the heart of all marketing decision makers - improving performance and ROI of campaigns,” said Bill Chisholm, managing director, Symphony Technology Group. “Symphony Technology Group will help IFX expand its geographic reach and technology footprint, providing its clients with a truly global, technology-enabled analytics capability."

"IFX is excited to join the STG family of companies," said James R. Friedman, president and chief executive officer of IFX and chief analytics officer for Symphony Technology Group. “IFX will benefit from STG's financial strength, best practices and technical infrastructure, helping IFX more aggressively scale its continuous marketing measurement solutions and offering clients a fully integrated, enterprise-wide data and analytics capability that provides the insight to make effective marketing decisions."

STG companies are well known for providing high value, high impact solutions that help customers dramatically improve their performance, productivity and profitability through best-of-class processes and management. STG companies include:

GERS Retail Systems - a leading supplier of merchandising software solutions
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) - one of the world’s leading providers of enterprise market information solutions offering a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software and professional services
Intentia - one of the world’s largest ERP companies, which is currently merging with Lawson Software
Metreo - a leading provider of comprehensive pricing intelligence, optimization and execution solutions
SymphonyRPM - a provider of forward-looking performance management and predictive business analytics solutions
Symphony Services - a global provider of collaborative, full lifecycle-outsourcing solutions for software product development and analytic processes

About ImmediateFX, LLC
ImmediateFX, LLC (IFX) provides an integrated analytics platform to help companies in the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, retail and service industries make better marketing decisions. Combining powerful data integration and analytics services along with a suite of sophisticated marketing ROI and reporting tools, IFX enables major corporations to more effectively track, analyze and measure the ROI of their marketing activities including advertising, consumer and trade promotion activities. IFX has significant experience in the implementation of a "continuous marketing measurement" approach for Fortune 500 companies. IFX is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group, a $1.2 billion strategic holding company. For more information, please visit www.immediatefx.com.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic holding company that helps companies maximize operational efficiencies in the enterprise software and services market. With years of deep operational experience to draw upon, STG companies can leverage strong personal networks, vast financial and operational resources and a history of excellence to empower their clients’ success today and tomorrow. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., STG is a $1.2 billion strategic holding company that employs more than 7,000 employees worldwide across its companies. For more information, visit www.symphonytg.com.

Media Contact:
Matt Flanagan
fama PR
P: 617-758-4141
E: matt@famapr.com

Symphony Technology Group Acquires Metreo

Acquisition of Leading Pricing Solutions Company Aligns With the Group's Investments in Market Leading Analytics Solutions

Palo Alto, CA - Jan. 30, 2006 - Symphony Technology Group (STG), a strategic software and services holding company led by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Metreo, a leading provider of comprehensive pricing intelligence, optimization and execution solutions. Under the terms of the deal, Metreo will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group.

"Through the application of systematic analytics and discipline to pricing processes, Metreo delivers enormous value to strategic and forward thinking manufacturers and distributors,” said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, chairman, Symphony Technology Group. “We have always been a believer in the power of predictive applications to help increase business performance. Metreo shares this vision and there isn't a better company or team for us to build around."

Achieving pricing excellence is very difficult and requires a special combination of experience, proven technology and commitment from both the solution provider and customer. STG is making this investment because Metreo has proven its ability to deliver pricing excellence to some of the largest companies in the world, while meeting their needs for operational efficiency and profitability.

"We believe Metreo's technology, team and vision are on to something special," said J.T. Treadwell, principal, Symphony Technology Group. “Symphony Technology Group will help Metreo raise the bar for pricing optimization and excellence. Its products will form the cornerstone of a full suite of pricing solutions that will continue to deliver the proven results that customers have come to expect from Metreo."

"This is a terrific acquisition by STG and a great home for Metreo, our products, employees and customers," said Daphne Carmeli, co-founder of Metreo. "STG has the financial strength to pursue our vision, a broad portfolio of companies that complement Metreo's initiatives and they are true believers in the value that pricing solutions deliver. The team is excited by the combination - STG is committed to our products and they will be great partners for our customers."

STG companies are well known for providing high value, high impact solutions that help customers dramatically improve their performance, productivity and profitability through best of class processes and management. STG companies include:

GERS Retail Systems - a leading supplier of merchandising software solutions
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) - one of the world’s leading providers of enterprise market information solutions offering a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software and professional services
Intentia - one of the world’s largest ERP companies, which is currently merging with Lawson Software
Metreo - a leading provider of comprehensive pricing intelligence, optimization and execution solutions
SymphonyRPM - a provider of forward-looking performance management and predictive business analytics solutions
Symphony Services - a global provider of collaborative, full lifecycle-outsourcing solutions for software product development and analytic processes

About Metreo
Metreo is the leading provider of comprehensive pricing intelligence, optimization and execution solutions that demystify and add discipline to the entire pricing process, enabling manufacturers and distributors to drive more profit to the bottom line. Customers include industry leaders such as Eaton Corp., Grainger, Honeywell, Oncology Therapeutics Network and Owens Corning. Metreo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group, a $1.2 billion strategic holding company. More information is available at http://www.metreo.com.

About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic holding company that helps companies maximize operational efficiencies in the enterprise software and services market. With years of deep operational experience to draw upon, STG companies can leverage strong personal networks, vast financial and operational resources and a history of excellence to empower their clients' success today and tomorrow. STG is actively engaged with each Group company, providing the strategic insight needed to achieve business performance and revenue growth through innovation. Headquartered in Palo Alto , CA , STG is a $1.2 billion strategic holding company that employs more than 7,000 employees worldwide across its companies. For more information, visit http://www.symphonytg.com.

Media Contact:
Matt Flanagan
fama PR
P: 617-758-4141
E: matt@famapr.com

SymphonyRPM Recognized as Leader by Ventana Research in Recently Released Update of its 2005 Performance Management Vendor and Product Scorecard

New Functionality in SymphonyRPM 4.5 Helps Company Build on its Performance Management Leadership Position in Updated Industry Report

Palo Alto, Calif. - December 6, 2005 - SymphonyRPM, Inc., provider of the only integrated enterprise platform for forward-looking performance management and predictive business analytics solutions, today announced that it has attained one of the highest rankings in Ventana Research’s Update to its 2005 Performance Management Vendor and Product Scorecard.The Update Report was undertaken to include new product releases available between November 2004 and October 2005 and overall involved more than 30 vendors and 70 products. Recently released SymphonyRPM 4.5 received an overall score of 91 percent resulting in SymphonyRPM earning a leadership position for Performance Management in the second straight scorecard.

"Ventana Research's approach to objectively analyzing vendors and products is meticulous, so we were excited to enter SymphonyRPM 4.5 into the vendor and product scorecard update evaluation,” said Bennett Indart, vice president of products, SymphonyRPM. "We were pleased to see that the new functionality in SymphonyRPM 4.5 improved upon our leadership position - validation that SymphonyRPM’s integrated enterprise platform for performance management is among the best solutions available."

The Ventana Research Scorecard is a tool that organizations can use to increase their understanding of how different software and solutions rank in meeting their business and IT requirements for Performance Management. This research, which is completely unbiased and objective, is the first industry report assessing software designed specifically for enabling Performance Management. As opposed to other analyst reports that use subjective influence to score vendors, the Ventana Research 2005 Performance Management Vendor and Product Scorecard is based exclusively on scoring vendors’ ability to provide specific capabilities in their software products and packages that meet business objectives for improving performance.

The report is broken out into three steps to achieve an overall score - Align, Optimize and Understand.

Align: This step is focused on ensuring that the recommended actions and plans are in the direct path for reaching the goals, objectives and initiatives set out by executives and management.
Optimize: This step is focused on planning for future actions and decisions to define the goals, objectives and initiatives as set out in the Align step.
Understand: This step is focused on reviewing the historical performance of people and processes, enabling companies to understand how results impact the organization.

"Building upon the initial 2005 Performance Management Vendor and Product Scorecard, our team examined numerous products that had new releases in the past calendar year to get a clear view of where generally-available solutions stood as 2005 comes to a close," said Mark Smith, CEO and senior vice president of research, Ventana Research. "SymphonyRPM's latest release builds upon the company’s ability to deliver to market an enterprise-wide platform for enabling performance management with the forward-looking analysis and collaboration necessary for timely, effective decisions throughout the enterprise."

About SymphonyRPM
SymphonyRPM is the only integrated enterprise platform for enabling forward-looking performance management and predictive business analytics solutions. Through its patented next generation business application development environment, the company synchronizes operational planning and execution across the organization and accelerates time-to-market and value. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, SymphonyRPM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group, a $1.3 billion strategic holding company. For additional information, visit http://www.symphonyrpm.com.

Lawson Makes Initial Form S-4 Registration Statement Filing

St. Paul, Minnesota and Stockholm, Sweden, Nov. 21, 2005-Lawson Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWSN) and Intentia International AB (XSSE: INT B) today announced that Lawson has made its initial filing of a proxy statement and prospectus as part of a Form S-4 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the name Lawson Holdings, Inc. The registration statement provides the details of the previously announced offer for the shares and warrants in Intentia International AB. The S-4 also contains a proxy statement that will be used to solicit certain actions by Lawson shareholders, including approval of the merger agreement and issuance of new shares. The registration statement has not yet become effective.

The S-4 filing is a significant step in the combination of Lawson and Intentia that was announced on June 2, 2005. Further information on the timetable relating to the combination and the registration of the Swedish prospectus by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority will be communicated by Lawson and Intentia once the Form S-4 registration statement has been declared effective by the SEC. The timetable will also include information on investor meetings.

Lawson will host a conference call on Tuesday, November 22, at 3:30 p.m. Central Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern and 10:30 p.m. Central European Time) to discuss its initial Form S-4 registration statement filing. Interested parties may listen to the live call by dialing 1-800-857-4748 (passcode Lawson 1122) and international callers +1-210-234-7123. A live Webcast will also be available on www.lawson.com. Interested parties should dial into the conference call or access the Webcast approximately 10-15 minutes before the scheduled start time. This is a live call only; there will be no replay or Web archive of the call available. For more information about the proposed combination of Lawson and Intentia, please visit www.intentia.lawson.com.

About Lawson Software
Lawson Software provides business application software and consulting services that put time on the side of services organizations in the healthcare, retail, government and education, banking and insurance, and other markets. Lawson’s software suites include enterprise performance management, distribution, financials, human resources, procurement, retail operations and service process optimization. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Lawson has offices and affiliates serving North and South America, Europe, and Africa. For more information, please visit www.lawson.com. Lawson Software and Lawson are registered trademarks of Lawson Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

About Intentia
Intentia is the only global enterprise solutions provider 100% dedicated to bringing software applications and consulting services to companies whose core processes involve manufacturing, distribution and maintenance-what we call the “make, move and maintain” market.

- 100% of our resources are committed to this market.
- 100% of our software is designed for this market.
- 100% of our experience is in serving this market.

Intentia was founded in 1984 and serves over 3,000 customer sites in some 40 countries around the world. Our business solutions currently comprise enterprise management, supplier relationship management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, value chain collaboration, enterprise performance management and workplace management.

Intentia is a public company traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (XSSE) under the symbol INT B. Visit Intentia’s Web site at www.lawson.com

Intentia
The Intelligent Choice

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that contain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements contain statements of intent, belief or current expectations of Lawson Software, Inc., and its management. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company is not obligated to update forward-looking statements based on circumstances or events that occur in the future. Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: uncertainties in the company’s ability to realize synergies and revenue opportunities anticipated from the Intentia International acquisition; uncertainties in the software industry; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks in the United States, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company’s targeted service industries; increased competition and other risk factors listed in the company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and as included in other documents the company files from time to time with the Commission.

Additional Information and Where to Find It
Lawson has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 containing a proxy statement/prospectus in connection with the proposed acquisition of Intentia by Lawson pursuant to the terms of the Transaction Agreement by and between Lawson and Intentia. The proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to the stockholders of Lawson and Intentia security holders being U.S. persons once it has been declared effective by SEC, and the security holders of Lawson and Intentia are urged to read the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials when they become available because they will contain important information about the offer, Lawson and Intentia. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of these documents (when they are available) and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Lawson by going to Lawson's Investor Relations page on its corporate Web site at www.lawson.com. Lawson has also prepared a Swedish prospectus which is expected to be registered by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority once the registration statement on Form S-4 has been declared effective by the SEC.

Lawson and its directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Lawson in connection with the transaction described herein. Information regarding the special interests of these directors and executive officers in the transaction described herein will be included in the proxy statement/prospectus described above. Additional information regarding these directors and executive officers is also included in Lawson's proxy statement, which was also filed as part of the Form S-4 submission filed with the SEC. This document is available free of charge by contacting the SEC or Lawson as indicated above.

Lawson Software Intentia
Terry Blake Niklas Björkqvist
Media General Counsel
+1-651-767-4766 Telephone:
+46-8-5552 5249
terry.blake@lawson.com
Fax: +46-8-5552 5999
Cell phone: +46-733-27 5249
niklas.bjorkqvist@intentia.se

Lawson Software Intentia
Barbara Doyle Micaela Sjökvist
Investor Relations Investor Relations
+1-651-767-4385 Telephone: +46 8 5552 5000
barbara.doyle@lawson.com
Cell phone: +46 70 698 6646
micaela.sjokvist@intentia.se

Cadel Trading Ltd. Selects GERS Solutions to Grow in the Caribbean

Trinidad retailer implementing Merchandising, Inventory, and Analytics to expand 40-store chain of fashion and sporting goods stores

SAN DIEGO, October 18, 2005 - GERS Retail Systems, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions, today announced that Cadel Trading Ltd, a family-owned retail chain with 40 stores in 18 locations on the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, has selected GERS to provide their suite of integrated enterprise solutions to modernize the retailer’s operations and enable them to expand their chain to other islands in the southern Caribbean area. Cadel runs three companies - Francis Fashion, Shoe Locker, and Sport World - and has two flagship stores totaling over 19,000 square feet each.

"With the GERS solutions, our store managers will have real-time visibility into inventory, orders, turnover, and shrink,” said Sean Hadeed, CEO of Cadel Trading Ltd., “which will give them more control over ordering and replenishment to optimize our store assortments and increase revenues."

GERS integrated solutions provide detailed, up-to-the-second knowledge of every transaction to ensure that all decision makers have the best information possible when deciding which products are right by store location and retail price points. Delivering real-time inventory information to merchants enables them to make the critical merchandising decisions that drive their organization's performance.

"GERS" solutions give Cadel Trading Ltd. the tools to coordinate and streamline operations across their entire chain,” said Phil Kenney, Vice President, Group Product Manager & Marketing Operations for GERS Retail Systems. “Additionally, it provides a highly scalable platform that allows them to fulfill their goal of expanding to the other Caribbean Islands.

About GERS Retail Systems
GERS Retail Systems is a leading supplier of software solutions for consumer-centric retailing. By facilitating the real-time flow of transactions and information across the entire retail organization, our solutions enable retailers to consistently anticipate, understand, and fulfill their customers’ expectations for products that are priced, located, and timed to provide the optimal shopping experience. GERS solutions manage the merchandising life cycle, multi-channel selling, planning, business intelligence, and supply chain synchronization to create a great customer experience. For more information, please visit www.gers.com.

IBM Helps IRI Deliver On Demand Market Intelligence for Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail Companies

IBM Software Powering Delivery of IRI Business Performance Management Solutions and Real-Time Market Information Platform

ARMONK, N.Y. and CHICAGO, September 15, 2005 - IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Information Resources Inc. (IRI) today announced that IRI, the leading global provider of enterprise market information solutions for consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies, will use IBM software to support the development and delivery of the next generation IRI Business Performance Management (BPM) solutions and real-time market information processing platform, MarketKnowledge™.

This IBM software technology backbone will help customers of IRI BPM solutions and MarketKnowledge platform put the insights they have about their consumers, competitors and marketplace activity to immediate application in driving key business decisions throughout their enterprise. These solutions provide a unique on-demand framework for all phases of planning, performance analysis, and rapid decision making required to optimize brand management, trade promotion, and sales and operations management. Previously, customers would only be able to view this critical data days or even weeks after the activities occurred. Using these new solutions, IRI customers can see market opportunities they’ve been missing, act faster with greater confidence and win in their markets.

The new agreement enables IRI and its customers to take full advantage of the performance, scalability, security, and reliability of IBM’s complete set of database, application server and integration products.

“The IRI BPM solution suite and MarketKnowledge information processing platform are indicative of the evolution to on demand market intelligence,” said IBM Information Management General Manager Amboj Goyal. “Companies need a unified and up-to-the-minute view of consumer actions so that they can make critical business decisions as events that can impact the bottom line are occurring; not days or weeks after they have transpired. IBM software technology will help IRI deliver these vital capabilities to its customers.”

The IRI BPM solutions suite leverages the SymphonyRPM platform as an integral part of its business performance management platform and solutions. The RPM platform is built on IBM software, including DB2 Universal Database, DB2 AlphaBlox, Ascential and WebSphere and is already in use by over a dozen IRI and SymphonyRPM clients. The BPM solutions, powered by IBM, give customers high performance market content, automated analytics, and enterprise class software tools.

Additionally, these solutions enable companies to better manage core business processes for improved and more consistent overall enterprise performance. As a result, management decision makers and planners MarketKnowledge is a $300 million investment by IRI in a powerful next generation grid computing architecture to revolutionize the world of market information and support a completely new class of on demand Business Performance Management solutions. The platform combines daily retail sales data, shopper insights, sophisticated automated analytics, and enterprise decision support software to address major business issues, such as out-of-stock monitoring, new product distribution, and effective trade promotion compliance.

“IRI is on course to deliver 10 times the value to its clients through an entirely new breed of marketing information solutions, automated analytics, and enterprise level software that was simply not previously available in the marketplace,” said IRI Chairman Dr. Romesh Wadhwani. “We determined that only IBM can provide the integrated solutions and technologies required to deliver on that promise. As IRI continues its business transformation and enables its clients to grow their business on demand in a highly-complex marketplace, these new offerings from IRI, combined with IBM’s comprehensive information infrastructure will be an invaluable competitive advantage to our organization and clients.”

IRI joins a growing number of customers who have selected IBM to build an integrated computing infrastructure to enable advanced analytics, real-time responsiveness and high performance and scalability.

For more information on IBM’s integrated information on demand technologies visit: www.ibm.com.

Complete information about IRI and its solutions and services can be found at: www.infores.com.

Information on Demand
The desire by businesses to access, manage and deliver information more efficiently is driving rapid change in the IT marketplace. Traditional low-tech, hardware-only approaches by proprietary vendors are meeting with resistance as companies grappling with new government mandates and business demands strive to capture and integrate information in a more seamless, real-time fashion across the enterprise. IBM's information on demand approach combines deep business insight with open standards, advanced storage systems, sophisticated systems management software and leading information management software to create efficient, cost effective and flexible information infrastructures. Regardless of industry, IBM helps companies transform data into insight to enable information on demand.

About IBM's Information Management Business
There are more than 60 million DB2 users from 425,000 companies worldwide relying on IBM DB2 Information Management Solutions. IBM is the only data management software vendor to provide customers with integrated solutions for database management, tools, content management, enterprise information integration and business intelligence. For more information please visit http://www.software.ibm.com/data.

About Information Resources, Inc.
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services, empowering its clients to grow their business profitably in a complex marketplace. Driving the transformation of the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries, only IRI provides a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software, and professional services. The company’s portfolio of services, solutions, and technology enable leading retailers and their suppliers around the globe to see what they are missing, act faster with greater confidence and win at the shelf. Ninety five percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 in CPG and retail leverage IRI to power their business. For more information, visit www.infores.com.

IRI CONTACT:
John McIndoe
E-mail: john.mcindoe@infores.com
Phone: (312) 474-3862
Fax: (312) 474-2592

IBM, DB2 and the IBM e-business logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. For a list of additional IBM trademarks, please see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.

All other company, product or service names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of others. Statements concerning IBM's future development plans and schedules are made for planning purposes only, and are subject to change or withdrawal without notice. Reseller prices may vary.

Symphony Services Selected by BMC Software to Provide Services for Product Development

Relationship Focuses on Strong Development Collaboration, Shared Financial Results

Palo Alto, Calif. - August 29, 2005 - Symphony Service Corporation (Symphony Services), a high impact, global business solutions partner that helps clients leverage the global economy for competitive advantage, today announced that BMC Software®, a leading provider of Business Service Management solutions, has chosen Symphony to provide Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) services, including product development, quality assurance and level three customer support for selected BMC products.

Unlike other traditional outsourcing engagements, Symphony Services and BMC will share development outcomes and compensation for products that Symphony's Global Operations Centers manage for BMC.

"We are very pleased that BMC has chosen Symphony, as we have a proven track-record of producing solid, profitable results managing BMC products through their life-cycles," said David Carpini, vice president for Commercial Software Solutions at Symphony Services. "This relationship represents an ideal alignment of BMC and Symphony's shared goal of providing complete customer satisfaction through product innovation and execution. We are confident that customers will benefit from the collaborative relationship between Symphony Services and BMC."

"The joint-development and incentive-based nature of our agreement with Symphony provides a strong advantage in the marketplace for BMC," said Dayon Kane, director and general manager of BMC's Legacy Product Business Unit. "Our customers will benefit from continued product innovation through co-development with a leading services organization, and BMC will maximize the business performance of selected products that are entering the mature stage of their life-cycle."

For more information on how your business can benefit by working with Symphony Services, contact Heather Dalloul, director, Business Development at (650) 935-9534 or heather@symphonysv.com.

About Symphony Services
Symphony Services helps enterprises leverage the global economy to gain competitive advantage. Symphony combines core competencies in complex analytics and software engineering with deep domain knowledge and process expertise to deliver measurable value to clients.

The company's three service lines offer end-to-end solutions across vertical markets and functions: Commercial Software Solutions delivers increased productivity and faster time-to-market for software products; Market Analytics Solutions enables better decisions, more predictable results and opportunities to increase revenue; and Spend Management Solutions provides indirect expense insight and visibility for optimized performance.

Symphony Services is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with North American locations in Dallas, TX, Nashville, TN, and Waltham, MA; and India locations in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. For more information on Symphony Services, please visit the Web site at www.symphonysv.com, or call (650) 935-9500 in the U.S. or (080) 51298400 in India.