Lawson to merge with Sweden’s Intentia

St. Paul (dpa) – U.S. business software maker Lawson Software Inc. said it is buying Swedish competitor Intentia International for about 480 mln dollars.

The new company will have annual sales of about 770 mln dollars, 3,500 employees and customers in 40 countries.

Intentia shareholders will receive 0.4519 Lawson shares for each of their own in a deal to be complete by the end of 2005.

The merged company will operate as Lawson Software with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, and international operations based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The two companies complement each other well. Lawson is strong in the U.S. market, while Intentia is represented mostly in Europe and the Asian-Pacific area.