A global software firm headquartered in Nottingham has announced a deal to buy a rival firm for almost £16 million.
Ideagen, which provides information management software for the governance, risk and compliance market across the world, has bought Sheffield-based Qualsys for £15.6 million.
An electronic quality management software (EQMS) firm, Qualsys was founded 25 years ago by Mike Pound and Mike Bendall.
Employing 50 people, its products are used by more than 500,000 people across 120 countries.
It has blue chip customers, such as Diageo, Unilever, Honeywell and BT, across a range of industries, including pharmaceutical, healthcare, high-tech manufacturing and food and drink.
In 2016, Qualsys started to develop a new cloud native version of its software using the latest web technologies available and has now invested more than £3 million in research and development.
The product was launched late last year and has been well received by the market, securing new customers across multiple industries.
Ben Dorks, chief executive of Ideagen, said: “This is fantastic acquisition for Ideagen and will have a significant impact on our position in the EQMS market.
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“The latest iteration of their product will sit perfectly within our Q-Pulse product family and will integrate into the quality management component of our Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) cloud platform.
“This will ensure we can offer our existing and new customers, the latest developments in EQMS, together with the tried and tested expertise of Ideagen’s team of developers and support people, as well as a wider suite of products to meet all of their audit, risk and compliance requirements.”
The deal is expected to boost Ideagen’s earnings by £600,000 in the current financial year and by £1.5 million in the year to April 2022.