By: Jim Rosenberg In the latest example of vendors broadening product lines through acquisitions that bring together back-end business systems and front-end publishing systems, Publishing Business Systems (PBS) of Barrington, Ill., today announced its acquisition of Informatel Corp. for unspecified terms.
The advertising software developer based in Laval, Quebec, now does business as PBS Canada, providing an integrated advertising solution for classified, display, accounts receivable, classified pagination, ROP layout, customer relationship management, wireless sales devices, and Internet access.
PBS Canada President Andre Paquette, formerly Informatel president, said Informatel "lacked the size and distribution capability to grow as quickly as we wanted to."
PBS asked key customers to evaluate Informatel's product line before the acquisition. PBS President Steve Smith said that after two years of looking for products to acquire, Informatel was "the only company ... that met our needs for fully scaleable products with an outstanding underlying design" that allows the products "to handle the full range of customer sizes served by PBS."
PBS will integrate Informatel offerings with its own circulation and financial management products to produce what it calls "the first fully functioning integrated business environment for the newspaper industry." PBS and PBS Canada will add SQL Server and Oracle databases to all products, and will provide solutions running on Windows 2000, Unix, and Linux. Language-independent Informatel products have been provided in French and English, and PBS said it will make its other products language independent as well.
Founded in 1989, PBS has more than 500 customer sites in North America, the Caribbean, and Australia. Its products range from various advertising-, circulation-, and financial-management applications to preprint inventory management and human resources.
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