By: Jim Rosenberg Toronto-based Geac Computer Corp. Ltd. has sold its publishing systems business for $1.5 million to Media Command Inc., a new company owned by a group led by investor Robert Banner and that includes two top executives from the division -- Bernard Grinberg and Phil Lowe. The $1.5 million sale included all worldwide operations and no real estate.
Geac CEO John E. Caldwell said the divestiture was part of a "strategy to be more focused on fewer businesses that contribute positively to results." According to Geac, the division accounted for less than 3% of its fiscal 2001 revenue.
The sale of part or all of Geac has been under consideration for some time. Last fall, former Geac chairman and president William G. Nelson said that among newspapers in particular "we have a significant pipeline, but the closes aren't there yet," attributing the situation to what seemed to be a lengthening sales cycle.
Geac, a provider of government and cross-industry enterprise business applications, acquired Cybergraphic Systems, Collier-Jackson, and Matrix in the 1990s. It merged the businesses to create the Publishing Systems division, headquartered at Collier-Jackson's location in Tampa, Fla. Later it added the Gazette technologies data warehousing business spun off by the parent company of
The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Information technology venture capitalist Banner is chairman and chief financial officer of Media Command. Asia-Pacific operations are under Cybergraphic co-founder, Publishing Systems division president, and Media Command president Bernard Grinberg, at Cybergraphic's old headquarters in Melbourne, Australia; European operations are led by Matrix chief executive, Publishing Systems chief operating officer, and Media Command CEO Phil Lowe at the Matrix offices in Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Managers in Tampa could not be reached for comment late Friday.
Media Command said it will continue to support existing product lines and develop newer cross-media publishing products. The oldest business, dating from 1975, was Collier-Jackson, which developed business-side applications for newspapers. Cybergraphic supplied the technology for editorial and advertising production systems. Matrix created circulation-distribution systems. Through a recent partnership, it offered an Internet-based customer relationship management product.
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