Peoplesoft acquires catalogue management vendor

Enterprise software vendor Peoplesoft has acquired US-based catalogue management software firm Cohera in a bid to expand its content integration and catalogue management software. The deal will help PeopleSoft build product catalogs for its customers' products on the Internet and then tie those catalogs to other software that lets businesses buy and sell products online. Peoplesoft is aiming to give suppliers software that will help them load product information into a customer’s catalogue themselves, freeing the customer’s purchasing department from this time-consuming activity. Bob Parker of industry analyst AMR Research said: “The product content management capability picked up with the acquisition of Cohera, combined with the new functionality developed, earns Peoplesoft definite consideration for users looking to build a private trading exchange, whether they are existing users or not.” The acquisition of the intellectual property and certain assets of Cohera was for an undisclosed cash sum, but Peoplesoft’s ceo Craig Conway said, “The deal was done at a very reasonable price.”