Cranes to buy Sigma product line from SPSS

Cranes Software International Ltd, a scientific and engineering software solutions provider, has announced its decision to acquire Sigma product line from SPSS Inc for $13 million.

Systat Software Inc, CSIL's fully owned subsidiary, has obtained the exclusive worldwide licence to distribute the Sigma-series product line from SPSS Inc, CSIL said in statement in Bangalore.

In addition to the distribution licence, the agreement involves the acquisition of all related customers, personnel, and fixed assets and comes with the option to purchase all related intellectual property, including brand names and trademarks, after three years.

The agreement involves an immediate cash payment of $9 million, followed by staggered payments of $3 million in 2004 and $1 million in 2005, it said.

Sigma-series products, CSIL said, were used by scientists and engineers for data presentation and analysis, including the flagship SigmaPlot offering, SigmaStat statistical analysis package, and SigmaScan impage analysis software. In addition, Systat will acquire Kinetics Enzyme, a related life sciences module.

"These offerings are highly complimentary to CSIL's current portfolio in terms of cross-selling potential within existing users and addressable markets. CSIL's current portfolio of scientific and engineering software products includes such leading products as SYSTAT, TableCurve2d, TableCurve3d and PeakFit," it said.