Suwanee, Ga.-based B2B e-commerce solution provider Clarus Corp. and Microsoft’s newly acquired Great Plains Software Inc. apparently are about to team up for a joint marketing program aimed at the Canadian market.
A conference call to discuss the marketing agreement, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed a few days to a week while the companies work out the final details, a spokesman for Clarus told internetnews.com.
Clarus just today released Clarus eMarket 3.0, the latest version of its digital marketplace software. Microsoft completed its acquisition of Great Plains, a supplier of mid-market business applications, last week for approximately $1.1 billion in stock.
The conference call that was scheduled for today with Fargo, N.D.-based Great Plains was not about an acquisition, but a partnership agreement for the Canadian market, Clarus spokesman Tim Boivin at Tech Image Ltd. said. The companies are “teaming up to tackle Canada,” he said.
Clarus might well find such a shot in the arm healthy; just last week it lowered its first-quarter revenue expectations to about $4.5 million. Analysts, on average, had been expecting revenues of $5.6 million. J.P. Morgan last week lowered its 2001 outlook on Clarus Corp. to call for a steeper loss of $2.60 per share versus earlier expectations for a loss of $2.12.
Clarus was trading at $5.54 at mid-day, down two cents. Its 52-week high is $75.43.
Great Plains is now a division operating within Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Services Group.
