Novato, Calif. (May 24, 2004) -- Best Software has sold the AccountMate operations, acquired with its purchase of Softline last year, to an employee group headed by David Dierke, who has become president and chief executive.
Dierke, who was AccountMate’s executive vice president for sales, says the change will be good for AccountMate resellers who want to be able to contact senior management “to have things implemented into the program as the marketplace changes.” Joining Dierke is Tommy Tan, formerly vice president of development, who will now be chief technology officer, and David Render, who will be chief operating officer. Render served as sales manager under Dierke when Dierke was sales vice president for the former SBT Accounting Systems. Dierke left SBT before its purchase by Accpac in 2001 and joined AccountMate after that company was acquired by Softline.
Many in the channel had doubted that Best would keep both AccountMate and Accpac’s Pro Series software because both are source-code products. However, Best CEO Ron Verni says that Pro Series has become more customizable and “moved more to our model.” With AccountMate remaining a pure source-code product, “it was different from our strategy,” Verni says.
Terms were not disclosed. Softline acquired AccountMate in 2000 for $4.25 million. Best earlier this month sold Datafaction, acquired by Softline in 1999 for $3.2 million, back to its founder, Brian Kleinman. Of the North American companies acquired by Softline, Best is keeping only BusinessVision, which now operates under Accpac, which was acquired by Best earlier this year.
-- Robert W. Scott
