Struggling Tadpole buys US Conic in $1.25m deal

Tadpole Technology has acquired US software developer Conic Systems for $1.25m, allowing Tadpole to further develop its utilities and telecoms business.

Tadpole Technology has acquired US software developer Conic Systems for $1.25m, allowing Tadpole to further develop its utilities and telecoms business.

Based in Texas, Conic also has a subsidiary in Scotland. Its UK clients include the Ordnance Survey, Scottish and Southern Energy, and Northern Electric.

The deal was financed by a £2.2m US institutional share issue. Bernard Hulme, chief executive of Tadpole Technology, said: "The acquisition of Conic, and its integration into our Tadpole-Cartesia division, allows Tadpole to create a world-class business unit."

Hulme said the utility and telecoms industries were particularly attractive areas to target. "Putting the full wealth of corporate data into the hands of field workers is the driving goal of the utilities and telecoms industries as they strive to become more productive, more customer-centric and maintain profitability."

Conic was also attractive due to its specialist channel and technical staff. But it did suffer an operating loss of £33,000 for the eight months ended 30 August.

Notebook veteran Tadpole is in the process of recovery itself. Its results for the year ended 30 September 1998 showed turnover down 30 per cent at £9.4m and pre-tax profit down five per cent to a consecutive loss of £3.7m.But its results for the six months ended 31 March showed the vendor had kick-started its recovery. It recorded a pre-tax profit of £1.9m, up from a loss of £994,000, and turnover up 69 per cent at £6.6m.