Lawson will offer newly issued shares to Intentia shareholders in the deal which values Intentia’s shares 36 percent higher than their current value. The merger will create the world’s fourth-largest enterprise solutions company with 750 to 800 million dollars of annual sales and a profitability level of 15 percent of sales, Intentia chief executive Bertrand Sciard told AFP.

It will serve 4,500 customers in 40 countries. Europe and North America will each account for 45 percent of business, and the rest of the world for 10 percent, Sciard said.

Intentia currently makes just a small percent of its sales in the United States, and Sciard said his company needed the operation to expand into this profitable market “or stay a dwarf there”.

The operation has been approved by the boards of both companies but is still subject to shareholder and government approval.

The new company will operated under the name Lawson Software with its US headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota.

(AFP)