Small-to-midsized retailers stand to benefit from the merger "frenzy" that took place last year between vendors of supply chain and retail technology, according to a retail analyst.
"Those retailers under $1 billion in sales are quite excited about the mergers because it will provide some integration and financial stability in vendors that has been lacking," said Greg Buzek, president, IHL Consulting Group, Franklin, Tenn., which tracks retail IT spending and trends.
On the other hand, for those retailers more than $1 billion in sales, [the merger activity] "really doesn't matter to them because they are going to tell the vendors what they want anyway," he said.
The upshot, he added, is that technology vendors "are very bullish about the IT prospects of retailers for the coming years."
Perhaps the biggest mergers occurred among the companies formerly known as Internet trading exchanges - WorldWide Retail Exchange, GNX and Transora. Long-anticipated and widely welcomed in the retail industry, these deals saw the marriage in November of WWRE and GNX to create Agentrics, based in Chicago and Alexandria, Va., and the August union of Transora and UCCnet to form 1SYNC, a division of GS1 US, Lawrenceville, N.J.
"Since GNX and the WWRE were founded more than five years ago, the industry has sought a partnership between the two organizations," said Christopher Sellers, executive chairman, Agentrics, earlier this year.
1SYNC will serve solely as a data pool supporting global data synchronization, whereas Agentrics will perform data-pool and many other supply-chain functions.
Oracle, the database giant based in Redwood Shores, Calif., gobbled up a number of high-tech vendors last year, including some serving the retail industry. Those included Retek, a supplier of retail applications software; ProfitLogic, a marketer of profit optimizations systems; and G-Log, a provider of transportation management solutions.
Meanwhile, Oracle's German competitor SAP acquired Triversity, a marketer of point-of-sale software, and in November announced the acquisition of Khimetrics, a provider of price-optimization software.
In the biometric sphere, Pay By Touch, San Francisco, acquired its main competitor, BioPay, and completed its acquisitions of Capture Resource, a supplier of loyalty solutions, and CardSystems Solutions, a payment-processing provider.
And last month, Radiant Systems, a provider of technology to the convenience and hospitality sectors, acquired Synchronics, a provider of business management and POS software.
Buzek said last year's merger activity was "much higher than normal." But it was not unexpected one to two year's after a recession when companies are looking to expand quickly and "the quickest way is through acquisitions," he said. Another major factor was the rivalry between Oracle and SAP.
Technology companies are also motivated to acquire other companies, Buzek said, when the latter have "underutilized but solid technologies that if scaled properly could have a strong financial impact." The acquiring companies must also have "the infrastructure to handle the growth."
Safeway Wins
Catalyst Award
NEW YORK - Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., has been named a recipient of a 2006 Catalyst Award, which recognizes business initiatives supporting the advancement of women in the workplace.
Safeway was cited for its Championing Change for Women campaign, which has resulted in a 40% increase in women in store management ranks since 2000. Women at the vice president level increased from 12% to 25% at Safeway over the same period, Catalyst said.
The award will be presented at a conference in New York in March, according to Catalyst, a research and advisory firm based here. BP and the Chubb Corp. will also be honored.
