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Vietnamese Koch Industries, one of the largest private companies in the US, is pouring US$2.5 billion into Infor, which is also privately held and selling enterprise applications such as ERP, financial management, and retail management solutions. Infor is currently one of the world’s largest ERP vendors, along with SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft.
The deal was confirmed just a few days after the announcement of the US$9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite is a prominent cloud ERP vendor which offers exclusively cloud-based ERP systems.
Read more: How the world's largest ERP vendors fare against each other
This is also the biggest investment yet made by Koch Equity Development, the investment arm of Koch Industries. The giant pulp and manufacturer Georgia-Pacific, which is another Koch Industries’ subsidiary, is an Infor longtime client. The giant conglomerate also owns several other leading companies in manufacturing and distribution, and that represents huge business opportunities for Infor.
In addition to Koch Equity Development, a number of other private equity funds, including the Blackstone Group, also sought to buy a stake in Infor. With this deal, Infor will continue to invest in its current strategies to compete with competitors like SAP and Oracle.
The company is aggressively moving from the on-premises deployment model to the subscription-based model delivered in the cloud. Cloud ERP products like CloudSuite Industrial and CloudSuite Business are the central part of this strategy. Offering vertical-specific software to different sectors is another Infor’s strategic strength.
See more: Infor CloudSuite Industrial Overview
For Koch Industries, buying a stake in Infor is a crucial step in its transformation into a fully digitalised business.
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