Compatible IT partners

Consulting and IT solutions firm Infovide has a busy few months ahead. The firm recently signed a partnership deal with IT company Matrix.pl, which will eventually lead to the two companies merging and forming a new entity, Infovide-Matrix.

Infovide is planning an IPO in autumn, and it will submit its issue prospectus in September. By then it wants to be the 100-percent owner of Matrix.pl, says Marek Kobiałka, Matrix's CEO and the future CEO of Infovide-Matrix. By the end of November it will finalize the deal, which will come into legal effect in January 2007.

The forecast net profit of both companies for the current year amounts to zł.16 million, while revenues from sales should reach zł.183 million. But according to Borys Stokalski, Infovide's CEO and the future deputy CEO of the new firm, having a single vision and common goals is more important than the mere figures. Stokalski stresses that the deal will greatly increase the business and intellectual potential of both companies. 

The management's vision is to make the newly merged firm a leader on the Polish consulting and solution implementation (CSI) market. Expansion onto foreign markets is also planned.

Currently, Matrix operates in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Romania. Further growth abroad will be financed by funds raised from the IPO. The money will also be spent on services development as well as on acquisitions. Stokalski says that one such deal should be finalized this year.

Consolidation seems to be the name of the game on the Polish IT market of late. Other companies in the process of merging are Computerland and Emax, as well as Asseco and Softbank.