Acquisition to Extend Sterling’s Supply Chain Leadership in Manufacturing, Retail, High-Tech, Automotive and Aerospace
DUBLIN, Ohio, Nov. 20, 2006—Sterling Commerce, the multi-enterprise collaboration company and a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), today announced an agreement to acquire Comergent Technologies, Inc., a developer of eBusiness software, for approximately $155 million in cash. Sterling Commerce plans to incorporate Comergent products to provide customers with a unified end-to-end order fulfillment solution across the extended supply chain. This unified solution will enable customers to increase revenue, shorten sales and order fulfillment cycle times, and reduce overall supply chain costs.
“Comergent provides an enterprise suite of applications for managing selling and order management processes with customers and partners that will help Sterling Commerce act swiftly and broadly on some of our customers’ most pressing needs,” said Samuel Starr, president and CEO, Sterling Commerce. “By integrating Comergent’s eBusiness Application Suite into our multi-channel order fulfillment software, we plan to offer a modular end-to-end solution for the challenges that customers historically have handled through a complex and costly mix of point solutions.”
Headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., Comergent counts Affinia, Gates and Goodrich among its aerospace and automotive customers; Hayworth, Husky and Toro among its manufacturing customers; NEC, Quantum and Symbol among its high-tech customers; DIRECTV and Pearson Education as telecom and media customers and retail customers such as JC Penney and Best Buy For Business. Comergent’s eBusiness solution for the extended enterprise complements the Sterling Commerce solution for order orchestration across the supply chain. Comergent applications include a comprehensive set of order management capabilities ranging from account management to configuration to tools for guided sales, and support for customized proposals coupled with enterprise visibility into field quoting practices. Both Sterling Commerce and Comergent are built on services oriented architectures, allowing customers to incrementally adopt new capabilities as the market or customers dictate to form a comprehensive solution with a lower total cost of ownership.
“Both Comergent and Sterling Commerce share a vision for seamless supply chain execution—and today, the reality is that enterprises must sell broader offerings and reach new markets to grow their business and remain competitive,” said Jean Kovacs, president and CEO, Comergent Technologies, Inc. “Together, the respective strengths of our solutions will help enterprises respond to their growing customer and partner demands for optimized customer experience channel synchronization and reduced order fulfillment cycle times.”
Sterling Commerce plans to continue sales and support for Comergent products. The acquisition is subject to the expiration or early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, and is expected to close shortly thereafter.
About Sterling Commerce
Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), has more than 30 years of leadership and expertise in helping FORTUNE 500 customers thrive in a global economy by optimizing the performance of their business communities. With nearly 30,000 customers worldwide, the company is one of the world’s largest providers of multi-enterprise collaboration solutions. Sterling Commerce has unparalleled experience in the retail, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare and telecommunications industries. For detailed, up-to-date information about Sterling Commerce and its solutions, visit www.sterlingcommerce.com.
About Comergent
Comergent is the leading provider of eBusiness solutions for the extended enterprise. The Comergent eBusiness System orchestrates complex product, selling and order management processes across multiple enterprise systems, business organizations and sales channels. Comergent’s customers are able to increase revenues while reducing the cost of sales by making it fast and easy for their customers to do business with them. Customers include industry leaders such as Applied Biosystems, Best Buy, DIRECTV, Gates Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, J. C. Penney, NEC Solutions America, Pearson Education, Pitney Bowes, Symbol, The Toro Company and World Wide Technology. Comergent is privately held with headquarters in Redwood City, Calif. For more information, visit www.comergent.com.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. is one of the world’s largest telecommunications holding companies and is the largest in the United States. Operating globally under the AT&T brand, AT&T companies are recognized as the leading worldwide providers of IP-based communications services to business and as leading U.S. providers of high speed DSL Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. AT&T Inc. holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which is the No. 1 U.S. wireless services provider with 58.7 million wireless customers. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and AT&T products and services is available at www.att.com.
Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T Inc.’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T and Sterling Commerce disclaim any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.
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