Concur Technologies yesterday solidified its position as the leading expense management vendor through the acquisition of competitor Captura Inc. for $2 million in cash, plus about 5.2 million Concur shares. Captura's owners, which include customers Ford Motor Co. and Merrill Lynch, now own 16.6 percent of the combined company. Based on Concur's share price as of Tuesday, the deal is valued at approximately $12.5 million to $14.9 million.
Already supplying expense management to more of the top travel-buying U.S. companies than any other vendor, Concur gains 70 new clients, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Ericsson, General Motors and Hewlett-Packard. Concur said Captura's client base represents nearly 3.5 million users combined.
Concur said that by Monday it will have consolidated Captura's employees and Kirkland, Wash.-based headquarters functions into its own Redmond, Wash.-based headquarters, and that 350 of the "best and brightest" employees from both companies will be retained. Concur currently employs 320 people; Captura has about 140.
"The number-one thing is supporting not only the Concur customer base but, more importantly, the Captura base," said Concur chairman, president and CEO Steve Singh, who noted he had been talking with Captura since early June and was most impressed by its customers' satisfaction with the company. "We'll support Captura customers for the indefinite future, but we will merge the best of both into one next-generation product line over about a two-year period."
As a result of the acquisition, Concur--which has never earned a profit since its inception as Portable Software in 1993--has moved its profitability target to the December quarter from the September quarter of this year.