Federation unaffected by CS Group buy-out

Business as usual for Federation after sister company is acquired by software developer

Anti-piracy outfit The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) will remain an independent not-for-profit organisation, despite its sister company FAST Ltd, being acquired last week by software developer Computer Software Group (CS Group).

FAST Ltd, is a software training, education and membership organisation focussed on compliance and legality of software licensing, which has a licensing agreement with The Federation.

John Lovelock, director general of The Federation, told CRN: “FAST Ltd is a separate commercial organisation and has always been a commercial organisation that uses the FAST brand to educate corporate UK. The Federation is a not-for-profit organisation owned by its members.

“This acquisition has no effect whatsoever on the way The Federation operates and it will be business as usual for us.”

CS Group is hoping to use the acquisition, for an undisclosed sum to expand its offerings in the compliance sector.

Jolanta Pilecka, marketing director at CS Group, told CRN: “We identified compliance as a very important sector for us and we believe that the acquisition will help us open new markets. We aim to be able to offer a complete compliance suit to the UK market and this acquisition is the next step in our plans.”

Gerard Tilley, FAST commercial director said in a statement: “With the support of CS Group, we will be able to improve the way we quantify, prioritise and eradicate areas of risk with respect to IT and specifically, software compliance.”

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