Financial software firm bought by CheckFree
March 22, 1999
David Strow
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- The Mobius Group, a financial software company based in Research Triangle Park, has been acquired by CheckFree Holdings Corp. of Norcross, Ga., for $18 million in stock.
Mobius sells a software database for money managers. Former investment broker Bob Padgette founded Mobius 10 years ago for less than $1 million.
"Mobius was very financially sound. We didn't have to do a transaction," Padgette said. "We were very visible in the industry and doing very well. Personally, I wanted something that was very
attractive going forward, and I felt very comfortable with these people."
Mobius took in $6.6 million in revenues last year. It employs 70; most are in RTP.
"There's no plans to close anything down in North Carolina," Padgette said. "We've got about five years left on our lease, and space to expand. This is very definitely a growth relationship."
Mobius' main corporate investor was UAI Technologies, a software developer in RTP. The rest of the investment came from individual angel investors.
Mobius has merged with CheckFree's New Jersey-based Investment Services division. Padgette will become a senior vice president within the division.
CheckFree is one of the pioneers of electronic commerce. It provides e-commerce processing services, such as electronic payment and collections, automated financial transactions and secure Internet commerce systems. Over the last three months of 1998, it made $11.4 million on revenues of $59.6 million.
Mobius' main product, first developed in 1989, tracks the performance of thousands of money managers nationwide. The information from this database is sold to brokerage firms and individual financial advisers, whose clients use the information to select money managers.
"There were getting to be more buyers (for a database product), but no sellers," Padgette said. "More people were going into the business, and each had to collect this information themselves.
But no one was there to sell them that information as a database."
Mobius also produces a financial planning software package.
"We've served the same kind of constituency, the same kind of clients," said Mike Everett, director of marketing for CheckFree Investment Services. "They have a really great suite of products that
complements ours pretty well."
Investors apparently liked the marriage. On March 9, the day after the deal was announced, CheckFree's stock rose $4.56, or 13 percent, to close at $39.81. |
