Mamut snaps up leftovers of MYOB UK for £1.7m

April 2008

Norwegian software house has acquired the UK business division of MYOB in the wake of the Australian company's disposal of its Accountants Division to Wolters Kluwer/CCH last month.

Mamut will give MYOB a £1.7m cash payment in two instalments to launch itself into the number three spot in the UK market for small business accounting software.

According to Mamut, MYOBs UK Business Division turned over £1.8m in 2007 and has a total of 50,000 customers, 20,000 of whom use MYOB's accounting and payroll software. The deal also includes the DOSH brand name and product range. Mamut will continue to sell and support DOSH products.

Mamut chief executive officer Eilert Hanoa called the MYOB UK acquisition an "important building block" in the run up to the launch of its Mamut One "software and services" offering. The company's long-term intention is to migrate MYOB users to this system.

"Customers will be able to use existing and versions and new version of MYOB for 2008-09," said Hanoa. "But we will look to give them dual licences so they get a free migration to the equivalent Mamut products, or can continue to use existing products as is best for their business.

"Working with both MYOB and our UK partners, we need to make it as convenient as possible for MYOB users - but we hope they will be attracted by the better opportunity Mamut presents with its integrated ecommerce and CRM features."

According to Hanoa, the MYOB UK deal echoes the company's previous expansion moves in Sweden and Denmark, where after building up an initial foothold, Mamut acquired local software houses.

"We have been growing organically in the UK, but had to wait for the right stategic opportunity," he said. "You have to be patient to wait for the right opportunity and not pay too much."

If Mamut can continue the rapid growth it has enjoyed since entering the UK market in 2004 and tap into the MYOB user base, it could soon be a serious rival to Intuit for the number two spot behind Sage as the country's leading accounting software supplier.

With the Mamut One launch, the company will have a hybrid installed/hosted business application platform that is increasingly based around a service-based subscription model. After several years in which industry soothsayers have predicted software as a service to be the new era, Mamut could be poised to lend credence to these claims.

"This is an interesting turn for the UK market. We're one of the fastest growing challengers. At this point the software/service approach has maybe given us more mindshare and momenmtum, but it will become a very important part of our UK revenue stream in the next 12 months," said Hanoa.

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