Progress Software eyes buyout in analytics

Progress Software Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed provider of application infrastructure software to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, which has its research and development centre in Hyderabad, is looking at an acquisition in the area of real-time analytics, according to Keith Budge, vice-president and managing director (Apac and Japan).

“Real-time analytics is one of the areas that we are looking for to augment our Responsive Process Management (RPM) suite,” he told Business Standard. Budge said the company had approximately $70 million (Rs 350 crore) free cash a year and a credit line of $170 million (Rs 850 crore) from banks, which formed a healthy war chest.

“We are not bound by any geography for acquisitions. However, there are certainly some interesting Indian technology companies that are coming up. It (India) could be a good place to look at,” he said, while declining to draw any time line for the buyout plans.

Tapping into India for business opportunities since just over a year, Progress Software is betting big on Apama, an event stream processing technology that it gained through an acquisition for $25 million in cash in 2005. Apama is a platform for algorithmic trading, market aggregation, smart order routing, real-time pricing, market surveillance and monitoring, commodities, energy trading and real-time risk management.

Apama’s core engines are still being built at its headquarters in Cambridge, the US, while adapters (connectivity tools to various exchanges) are developed at Progress’ R&D centre in Hyderabad, which employs close to 350 professional.

Budge said Apama would soon go live with a Japanese securities company, the first in the Apac region, as a hosted service model. While Tier-I securities firms have their own set ups, it is Tier-II and Tier-III companies that need hosted services. In North America, 80 per cent trading is on a hosted model. Though the Apac region is much lesser, Progress expects the region to be there in 12-18 months from now, he added.

“With three high-end clients, including HSBC Securities, already using Apama in India, we are seeing high interest from securities companies here. We are talking to a dozen securities companies in India and hope to have a leading market share quiet quickly ... by the end of the next calendar,” Budge said.

With revenues of $530 million in 2010, Progress garners a majority of its revenues from the US and European markets, followed by the Apac region. And, India contributes about 15 per cent to Apac’s business.