Dallas firms make double buy after tech company splits in two

A Houston-based technology management and software company specializing in the hospitality industry has been split in two and sold to two separate Dallas-based companies for an undisclosed amount.

Telman Software, founded four years ago, was acquired by UniFocus, a hospitality industry performance management firm with 80 employees. Telman Technology Partners, a telecommunications management company, was acquired by TIV Operations Group Inc., which has about 60 employees.

TIV is only taking on one new employee as part of the transaction. Daniel Prosser, Telman's CEO and founder, will work with the company, but will remain in Houston because of his current responsibilities as vice president of technology for the Houston Symphony.

Of Telman's 22 employees, Prosser says 10 are relocating to Dallas to work for UniFocus and the remainder have found other positions locally. Prosser also will do some work with UniFocus, which gained Telman's unique software as part of the acquisition. Telman's product is able to integrate information from disparate computer systems, and produce cost analysis information that is unavailable from other sources, Prosser says.

"We invented a new technology for managing multi-unit portfolios of hotels and being able to provide predictive analysis to their business," says Prosser, who notes that predicting monthly profitability in the hotel industry is difficult because of its many variables. "Using our system, we could predict the outcome at the end of the month within 2 percent. It impacts cash flow planning tremendously."

It is only coincidence that both business units were sold at the same time. Prosser says he was approached separately by both buyers at an annual technology conference in June.

"The buyers are not related. They don't even know each other," Prosser says. "We got approached by two companies in the same week.

"Coincidentally, these two companies came to me and expressed an interest in doing some strategic partnering. The conversations evolved into acquisition talks, and the timing was right."

Tech notes

Houston-based Shason Microwave Corp. has changed its name, adopted a new business strategy and acquired an Australian company that has expertise in its newly chosen niche.

The 12-year-old company announced two weeks ago that it changed its name to Mimix Broadband. The firm plans to make components for broadband wireless equipment used at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies. Mimix's components are designed for use in equipment that's mounted on transmission towers that allow for wireless Internet access and the transmission of data.

Mimix already has designed some components -- made from gallium arsenide -- that are being manufactured on an outsourced basis. The company has about 30 employees.

Mimix announced one week ago that it has acquired Tadiran Microwave Network's Australian Design subsidiary for an undisclosed amount. The subsidiary will continue its operations in Australia.

Julie Teinert, a Mimix spokesperson, says the acquisition is significant because it gives the company five new employees who are highly skilled in this technology. This kind of expertise is extremely difficult to find, she adds.

The subsidiary, founded in 1993, will also benefit Mimix because it has a history of working with the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an Australian government-owned facility that supports a high level of research and development for commercial applications.

"The Australian Design subsidiary will enable Mimix Broadband to expeditiously enter the marketplace and meet critical time-to-market demands," says Rick Montgomery, Mimix president.

• BMC Software Inc. has shifted all of its Internet-based initiatives into a recently formed business unit called eForce.

The unit is responsible for BMC's e-business software and services for distributed computer systems. The company's products monitor and manage computer systems to ensure their availability. For the past year, BMC also has been focusing on Web site availability.

BMC only decided a few months ago that it should form a separate business unit to focus on e-business activity. The company did not formally announce eForce until last month.

The eForce group is developing software applications and technology for BMC products and those of its partners and customers. The group develops products that manage all sorts of business-to-business activity and customer relationship management applications.

BMC recently began shipping the first version of its Patrol product marketed through the group -- Patrol for Siebel eBusiness Applications. Other versions for i2 and Ariba are next on tap, with several others to follow.

"The idea is to manage a customer from a transactional standpoint from start to finish so that in the end, you have a happy customer," says Bob Kruger, vice president and general manager for eForce. "We're managing the technology foundation for that. The inherent difficulty of the Web is it has no manageability built in. We have to provide that."

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