Matawan/Livingston, N.J. (June 8, 2004) -- Trey Resources Inc., a recent spin-off from voice and speech recognition technology maker iVoice Inc., has purchased Best Software reseller SWK Inc.
SWK is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trey. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Trey has a $10 million financing facility that went public as a spin-off from iVoice in February 2004. The company claims it intends to use this facility to expand and acquire other companies.
As it described in a mission statement, "Trey is engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of specialized communication software. As part of its plan to expand into new markets, Trey has focused on the business software and information technology consulting market and is looking to roll up other companies in these expanding but highly fragmented industries."
SWK president Lynn Berman claims her firm has explored many financing and growth options over the years, including merging with interested CPA firms. She believes SWK has found a proper home with Trey, not only due to the financial backing, but because of its staff's technology background as well.
"Over the years we've been offered opportunities to merge with some CPA firms and the thing for us that didn't work is they didn't get what we were about. We are a development firm and have a proprietary product with value," Berman said. "This is a very unusual opportunity. They [Trey] are a public company that was a shell until last week. We were their first acquisition and there are a lot of advantages to being the first in. We are making the mold."
The two firms began formal discussions back in late February, but Berman said that SWK chief executive Jeffrey Roth and Trey CEO Mark Meller have known each other for some time.
Berman expects her staff of 16 will grow over the next year as her firm engages in new offerings, particularly for its latest venture. SWK, through a joint venture with bar code technology vendor Scanco LLC, has developed RF Barcode Master for Mapadoc - SWK's proprietary electronic data exchange solution for MAS 90 and MAS 200. RF Barcode Master for Mapadoc was designed to enable users to send employees transaction processing data via wireless devices.
-- Seth Fineberg
