Peace to be acquired

• READ
• COMMENTED
• SHARED

• CallPlus unbundles Hamilton, offers 'data banking'
• Deskop Linux is still not happening
• Supercity ICT: how the vendors are placed
• Government outlines rural telecommunications plan
• ‘Veneer’ of integration likely for Auckland

• New Zealand's internet filter goes live
• Deskop Linux is still not happening
• Vodafone concedes FX Networks not to blame for outage
• Gattung slams her successor's salary
• IE9 proves Microsoft is back in the browser battle, says analyst

• Skills shortage to return, but with variations
• Health IT Board drafts e-health plan
• ‘Veneer’ of integration likely for Auckland
• Northpower offers ISP Xf Net access to lit fibre
• NZTA revamps storage, looks to Saas and iSCSI

 

• Gartner: Spending on external service providers to increase
• Stepping forward
• The end of an ‘arranged marriage’?
• Let it reign
• ‘I was a CIO’

 

• SUBSCRIPTIONS
• NEWSLETTERS
• NEWSFEED

Computerworld is New Zealand's only specialised information systems fortnightly.

Subscribe now for $97.50 (24 issues) and save more than 37% off the cover price!

Get the latest news from Computerworld delivered via email.
Sign up now

Subscribe to Computerworld's
RSS newsfeed here and get news stories as they break.

• Peace International finds a new home at Hansen
• Michael Capellas to lead First Data
• KKR to buy Peace owner
• Optimation puts $750,000 project on ice
• Foot meets Xtra gun

US e-payment and e-commerce provider First Data announced last week that it will acquire New Zealand utilities billing software maker Peace Software.

According to a statement from First Data, "the acquisition of Peace is the cornerstone of First Data's strategy to provide a comprehensive, integrated, meter-to-meter cash solution to the global utilities market".

First Data anticipates closing the deal in the third quarter of this year.

Peace was founded in the 1980s by New Zealander Brian Peace and later shifted its sales operation to the US, while retaining its research and development function in New Zealand.

In April last year, it was forced to lay off 54 staff in the wake of a lull following a major deal with US energy utility Xcel. Plans to open R&D centres in Australia and the US were put on hold, as was the development of new modules.

Despite those setbacks, Peace has continued to win new business, examples being a win at Irish power utility Airtricity in May 2005, a contract with Australian power provider Service Essentials in January and a contract with the Hawaiian Electric Company in April.