MICROS Acquisition of Fry Moves Multichannel Applications Ahead
Last month, MICROS Systems, Inc., whose MICROS-Retail group provides point-of-sale, loss prevention, and cross-channel functionality to more than 90,000 retail stores worldwide, announced the acquisition of Fry, Inc., which has been designing and developing e-commerce applications since 1994.
I think the industry has a real potential powerhouse in the MICROS-Retail and Fry merger, and I am excited about the possibilities, both for clients and for the combined companies. Fry is one of the most respected e-commerce solution providers, and MICROS-Retail (the former CommercialWare) is one of the strongest direct systems. MICROS made a significant step in the past year with the acquisition of eOne, which in my opinion answers small to mid-size company needs. While we all know integrations between providers are never easy, it lays a great foundation for the future.
In the longer term, this means one huge potential step further for clients looking to get an order management and e-commerce solution that is a Tier 1 application from a single provider. Over time I wouldn’t be surprised to see a hosted option for the combined solutions.
Jane Cannon, Chief Technology Officer for MICROS-Retail, and David Fry, Founder, President, and CEO of Fry, are two of the people I most respect in this industry. Jane was the COO of CommercialWare and has been leading the transformation of Datavantage/CommercialWare/eOne into an integrated MICROS-Retail suite. David was a respected teacher and consultant who returned to his family’s printing business and, in 1994, recognizing the impact the Internet would have on the company and its clients, launched a subsidiary to help those clients successfully compete in the e-commerce marketplace.
I had a chance to talk to David Fry, and asked him why the acquisition was important to him. David talked about how fluid the e-commerce industry and its solutions had to be. He sees this merger as a way to bring additional capital and innovation to bear as new applications are developed. How much capital? MICROS Systems had over $785 million in revenues in 2007, and total company revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008 was $954.2 million, an increase of $168.5 million, or 21.4% over the same period last year.
Step back and look at the combined businesses of MICROS as the retail industry leader. I see the potential for tangible data resources being exchanged between retail, catalog, and e-commerce applications. It brings a whole new dimension to multichannel solutions.
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