Acquisition fever continues apace, this time with the announcement by Kofax (news, site) that it is to buy Atalasoft (news, site) in a deal that will see see it add to Atalasoft’s SDK and offer it for use with its capture and transformation modules software by the end of the year.

In terms of the amount of money that is being thrown around at the moment -- the Skype deal and the LinkedIn IPO being the first to spring to mind -- the amount here is relatively modest.

Financial Terms

According to a statement from the companies, Kofax will buy all of Atalasoft’s stock for US$ 5.5 million in cash, of which US$ 4.7 million will be paid when the deal is closed sometime at the end of this month and a further and US$ 0.8 million to be paid one year later if certain undisclosed conditions are met.

In addition, further payments that could amout to as much as US$ 4.2 million in cash may be made over the course of the following 30 months, again if certain undisclosed conditions are met. The acquisition does not include Atalasoft’s Vizit business, which Atalasoft has already spun off into a separate entity.

Product-wise, Kofax looks like it is going to start working on its new Atalasoft products, including its capabilities for portal and Internet browser-based applications straight away, a move it hopes will not only add to its current capabilities, but also extend the market that it will be able to sell into.

Kofax, as a result, expects the impact of this deal for the current financial year to be "earnings neutral," but hope to start making money out of it in the quarters that follow.

Bill Bither, founder and CEO of Atalasoft, will stay on as the general manager of Kofax’s Atalasoft business unit along with the entire Atalasoft team of 20, which means that its current customers don’t have to worry about being left in the lurch.

Kofax, Atalasoft

So what is Kofax going to do with it? The first place it will start working on Atalasoft’s SDK to enable users to extend their capture solutions beyond firewalls and include a line of business applications accessible over the web.

This means, Kofax says, that with a mortgage application, for example, users will be able to submit all information electronically for processing to the mortgage provider instead of having to submit paper-based documents even after scanning them into browser-based applications, or web portals.

After this, no one knows where Kofax is going to go. Some analysts believe that the price paid for Atalasoft will leave Kofax with a few dollars to spare, and the way the market is consolidating at the moment, and for the right price, who knows what might be in the cards for a few dollars more.