Talisma, Canada firm Pivotal to merge

 Two significant players in the global customer relationship management (CRM) space, the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based Pivotal Corp and the Indian origin Talisma Corp, based in Kirkland, US, are being merged in a deal steered by Oak Investment Partners, a private equity firm.

 Oak is buying Pivotal for around $44 million in cash and then merging the Nasdaq-listed company with Talisma. The Palo Alto, California-based Oak is also an investor in Talisma, so it was a synergistic move.

 As a result, the combined entity, to be called Pivotal globally and Talisma in India, will be in the top 10 of all customer relationship management software companies, and will command a market share of 4-5 per cent on the back of $75 million revenues, 2,000 customers and 700 employees.

 It will be right behind the biggies led by Siebel (25-28 pr cent market share), SAP and PeopleSoft, Dan Vetras, CEO of Talisma and soon to be COO of Pivotal, told Business Standard in a conference call.

 Bo Manning, current CEO of Pivotal, will continue to head the combined outfit.

 The merger, which is expected to close by the end of the year, must be approved by Pivotal shareholders and the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

 Analysts see this as a confirmation of two trends - India based development going hand in hand with US based marketing, and increasing consolidation in the software space.

 Manning and Vetras described the merger as a