Under terms of the acquisition agreement, Business Objects will issue approximately 26.8 million ordinary shares, based on the treasury share method, in respect of Crystal Decisions common shares and stock options outstanding immediately prior to the closing, and will pay approximately $307.6 million in cash to former Crystal Decisions stockholders. Based on the closing price of Business Objects' shares on the last trading day prior to the closing, the aggregate value of the transaction is approximately $1.2 billion.
In early January 2004, Business Objects plans to announce further details on the integration of Crystal Decisions, including the product roadmap and other key materials; a multi-city, global road show for customers and partners; an advertising campaign running in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Japan; and a unified Web site at www.businessobjects.com.
Business Objects also announced its executive management team, consisting of:
- Bernard Liautaud, chairman and chief executive officer
- John Olsen, president and chief operating officer
- Jim Tolonen, senior vice president and chief financial officer
- William Gibson, senior vice president – strategic alliances
- Susan Wolfe, senior vice president – general counsel and corporate secretary
- Dave Kellogg, senior vice president – marketing
- Herve Couturier, senior vice president – products
- Andrew Handford, senior vice president – BI platform
- Tom Schroeder, group vice president – corporate development
- Jonathan Schoonmaker, group vice president – human resources.
Prior to the acquisition, William Gibson, Andrew Handford and Susan Wolfe were, respectively, chief operating officer, vice president of products and vice president and general counsel of Crystal Decisions.
In addition, the company announced that David Roux was elected to the Business Objects board of directors. Roux is co-founder of Silver Lake Partners and was a member of Crystal Decisions' board of directors. Through its investment in New SAC, Silver Lake is indirectly Crystal's largest stockholder.
This piece is brought to you by the Information Management editorial staff.
Be the first to comment on this post using the section below.