Misys plc

views updated May 29 2018

Misys plc

Burleigh House
Chapel Oak
Salford Priors
Evesham WR11 8SP
United Kingdom
Telephone: + 44 (0) 1386 871373
Fax: + 44 (0) 1386 871045
Web site: http://www.misys.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1979
Employees: 7,000
Sales: $1.2 billion (2001)
Stock Exchanges: London
Ticker Symbol: MSY
NAIC: 511210 Software Publishers

As of 2002, Misys plc was one of the world’s largest independent applications software products groups. The United Kingdom-based company had operations in more than 30 countries. Its principal activities were the development and licensing of application software products to customers in well-defined vertical markets. Founded in 1979 to provide computer systems to insurance brokers in the United Kingdom, the company expanded in the 1990s through acquisitions to reduce its reliance on a single market and began providing software solutions to the banking and securities, healthcare, and financial services markets. While Misys’s banking and securities division serves global markets, its healthcare division serves the U.S. market only, and its financial services division serves insurance brokers and independent financial analysts in the United Kingdom.

Rapid Growth and Diversification: 1979–95

Kevin Lomax, the chairman of Misys, was the lead investor when Misys was founded in 1979 with private capital. He served as non-executive chairman until 1985, when he became the firm’s full-time executive chairman. As a supplier of computer systems to insurance brokers in the United Kingdom, Misys grew rapidly. In 1987, it gained access to public capital by floating its stock on the Unlisted Securities Market. In 1989, the company’s stock became listed on the main London Stock Exchange.

Toward the end of the 1980s, Misys decided to broaden the range of its activities and reduce its dependence on a single market. It began a series of acquisitions designed to strengthen its market position and increase its presence through consolidating different market segments. In 1992, Misys acquired a 20 percent interest in Countrywide IF Network, a collective of independent financial analysts (IFs). Misys subsequently acquired all of Countrywide and used it to become a dominant presence in the IF market. In 1994 Misys acquired Kapiti, a financial services software firm with 15 international offices, giving Misys a significant presence outside the United Kingdom. Kapiti was subsequently renamed Midas-Kapiti International Ltd. (MKI).

Although Misys was still considered a “little-known software company,” according to Computer Weekly, its 1995 takeover of ACT Group pic made it Great Britain’s largest software supplier. Misys’s 212-million-pound acquisition of banking software developer ACT Group gave it control of three of the five principal banking software products in the world: Equation, Bankmaster, and Midas. The ACT Group had been troubled by an expensive and overly complicated research and development project called DBA, which was costing it many millions of pounds and involved 20 man-years. Following the acquisition, Misys renamed the subsidiary ACT Financial Systems and replaced its managing director and finance director.

Entering U.S. Healthcare Market: 1997–98

By 1997, Misys had operations in 50 countries, with more than half of its revenue coming from outside the United Kingdom. The company’s 1997 annual report noted that 22 percent of its revenue came from emerging markets. For fiscal 1997 ending May 31, the company had net revenue of $477 million (£325 million) and earnings before taxes of $99 million. It had nearly 4,000 employees, including more than 350 in Ireland and about 1,000 in offices around the world.

Toward the end of 1997, Misys expanded into supplying software solutions for the U.S. healthcare market with the acquisition of Medic Computer Systems for $923 million. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Medic provided practice management information systems for physicians and was considered one of the top five health care information technology companies in the United States. Its product line consisted of three software suites: + Medic PM was targeted toward smaller physician practices; the recently launched + Medic Vision served larger physician groups and was especially appropriate for managed care; and AutoChart was designed for use by individual physicians to access and maintain patient clinical records. For fiscal 1996, Medic had revenue of $192 million and net income before taxes of $39 million.

Following the acquisition, Medic became the corporate headquarters for Misys’s healthcare division. The healthcare division consisted of Medic, which operated exclusively in the United States, and ACT Medisys, which operated in the United Kingdom and some overseas regions. ACT Medisys sold hospital and laboratory systems to private and public customers.

The newly created healthcare division was the company’s fourth. Its other divisions were banking and securities, insurance, and information systems. The company’s banking and securities division was the world’s largest independent supplier of software products to this sector and had more than 1,600 customers in 100 countries. The division had 24 branch offices in addition to those in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It served the wholesale banking market, the retail banking market, and provided software for corporate banking activities.

Misys’s insurance division supplied computer systems, software, and related services to the General and Life & Pension markets in the United Kingdom. It also provided transaction processing services. During 1997 and 1998, the insurance division was involved in developing a retail Web site for insurance products through Misys Interactive Trading.

The information systems division provided software products and services to a variety of vertical markets in the United Kingdom, including contracting and construction, the hotel and leisure industry, and manufacturing and distribution.

For fiscal 1998 ending May 31, Misys reported revenue of £448 million and an operating profit of 98 million pounds. The banking and securities division contributed £252 million toward revenue and had an operating profit of £71 million. The healthcare division had revenue of £83 million and an operating profit of £13 million. The insurance division reported revenue of £50 million and had an operating profit of £13 million, while the information systems division had revenue of £47 million and an operating profit of £5 million. During fiscal 1998, Misys disposed of Misys Computer Services and Misys Integrated Solutions, which comprised its support services businesses, for £10 million. The two companies joined with Zygal Dynamics, which sold printers to banks, to form a desktop management company, Cyberdesk.

Growth Through Acquisitions: 1999–2001

At the beginning of 1999, Misys acquired C-ATS Software Inc. for about $60 million in cash. C-ATS was based in Palo Alto, California, and developed risk management and other sophisticated financial software. C-ATS had become a takeover target following substantial losses in 1997 and 1998. Its flagship software product, Carma, served large banks and other financial institutions by helping them manage their risks and exposure to interest rate fluctuations and other market swings. Following the acquisition C-ATS was renamed and became a subsidiary of Misys subsidiary Midas-Kapiti International Ltd. (MKI), which also provided software applications to the securities and banking industries. Midas-Kapiti had 1,200 customers in 90 countries and provided software to 18 of the world’s 20 largest banks.

In addition to acquiring C-ATS Software during fiscal 1999, Misys also sold all of its operations in the information systems division to a group of investors that included their management for about £32 million. As a result of disposing of those non-core assets, Misys was now focused entirely on financial services—including insurance—and healthcare. For fiscal 1999, Misys reported revenue of £582 million and an operating profit of £135 million.

Believing that the Internet would be a catalyst for a fundamental restructuring of many financial services internationally, Misys was determined to establish a pivotal position in Web-based financial services. It planned to build twin Web portals that would serve both independent financial analysts (IFs) and consumers in the United Kingdom. During fiscal 2000, Misys invested £11 million in its portal initiative.

The company’s Internet strategy also extended to healthcare and insurance. In the United States, Misys and Medic entered into an alliance with Healtheon/WebMD, a leading healthcare e-commerce business. The terms of the alliance were finalized in January 2000, resulting in Misys gaining up to 4.4 million warrants in Healtheon/WebMD and revenue sharing from new Internet services to be offered to Medic’s physician base. In the United Kingdom, Misys’s newly established Internet services division was pursuing an investment and marketing program to establish Screentrade as the dominant insurance portal. Screentrade provided U.K. consumers with comparative insurance quotations and the ability to purchase car, home, and travel insurance over the Internet.

Company Perspectives:

Today, Misys is one of the world’s largest independent applications software products groups and the UK’s biggest. Its main activities include selling software solutions to banks, transaction processing and claims administration for physicians in the U.S., systems for insurance brokers in the U.K., and administrative and compliance services for Independent Financial Advisors, or IFs.

In fiscal 2000, Y2K issues affected Misys’s banking and securities division as well as its healthcare division. In banking and securities, Misys checked every customer’s system for Y2K compliance and, where necessary, provided the required upgrades. This massive project involved systems spread across 110 countries. In the U.S. healthcare market, Y2K concerns resulted in an anticipated slowdown in activity. The healthcare division reported sluggish demand for its larger systems, while demand for small and medium-size systems was strong in the early part of 1999 as old systems were replaced. During fiscal 2000, Misys strengthened its position in the retail financial services market with the acquisition of Financial Options Group and the i.e. group, which owned the 850-member IF Network. Following these acquisitions Misys created the subsidiary Misys IF Services to consolidate its position in the IF market. Overall Misys reported revenue of £708.8 million for fiscal 2000 ending May 31 and an adjusted operating profit of £130.2 million.

Following several months of testing, Misys’s business-to-business portal for IFs, called m-link, launched in July 2000. Later in the year, a free Web builder service was added to m-link that enabled individual IFs to have their own Web site without a set-up cost. IFs could then promote their own Web site to their clients. With the success of m-link dependent on companies offering their insurance and investment products online through the service, Misys signed up seven of the United Kingdom’s largest life insurance companies in October 2000.

During fiscal 2001 ending May 31, the Misys insurance division was renamed the financial services division. Its operations were boosted by two acquisitions in the previous year, the i.e. group and the Financial Options Group. In healthcare, Misys disposed of its U.K.-based health businesses, the ACT Medisys group of companies, in February 2001 for £24 million.

Finding that consumer adoption of the Internet for purchasing personal finance products was slower than expected, Misys closed down its consumer portals, Screentrade and theformula.com, in June 2001. Theformula.com, which was still in development, was to be a consumer financial services portal offering insurance, investments, and mortgages. Misys had been unable to find a suitable partner to share development and marketing costs. The Internet Services division was discontinued, and the company’s business portals m-link and i2i-link were consolidated into the financial services division.

Revenue for fiscal 2001 ending May 31 reached record levels again. Misys reported revenue of £849 million from continuing operations and an adjusted operating profit of £140 million. The banking and securities division accounted for 41 percent of the firm’s 2001 revenue and 59 percent of its operating profit. The healthcare division contributed 22 percent of Misys’s revenue and 24 percent of its profit, while the financial services division contributed 37 percent of the company’s revenue and 17 percent of its profit.

In June 2001, Misys announced it would acquire DBS Management pic, a principal competitor in the IF market, and Arizona-based Sunquest Information Systems Inc., which provided clinical systems to hospitals and other acute care facilities in the United States. The acquisition of DBA Management was valued at £75 million and resulted in a Misys-controlled network of 7,250 IFs and 3,700 member firms. That made Misys the largest IF network with 25 percent of all IFs as members. Sunquest Information Systems was headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. Its acquisition by Misys was valued at $404 million. Following the acquisition Sunquest became a subsidiary of Misys and part of its healthcare division.

According to Misys chairman Kevin Lomax, the acquisition of DBS Management marked the end of Misys’s acquisitions in the United Kingdom. For the future, the company planned to examine acquisition and development opportunities in Germany, which it considered a mature market similar to the United Kingdom.

For 2002, Misys embarked on a major rebranding strategy to take advantage of the Misys name. Although the company remained committed to the philosophy of individual business units with delegated authority and responsibility, Misys planned to bring most of its banking and healthcare subsidiaries under the Misys name. As part of its rebranding strategy, Midas-Kapiti International Ltd. and related MKI operating units were renamed Misys International Banking Systems. In the healthcare division, Medic Computer Systems and Sunquest Information Systems were both renamed Misys Healthcare Systems.

Principal Divisions

Banking and Securities; Healthcare; Financial Services.

Principal Subsidiaries

Misys International Banking Systems Ltd.; Misys Asset Management Systems; Misys Securities Trading Systems; Kindle Banking Systems (Ireland); Summit Systems, Inc. (United States); Physicians Systems, Inc. (United States); Hospital Systems, formerly Sunquest Information Systems, Inc. (United States); Misys IF Services pic; DBS Management pic; Countrywide Insurance Marketing Ltd.; CWA Claims Services Ltd.; Misys Financial Systems Ltd.

Principal Competitors

Applied Systems, Inc.; DST Systems, Inc.; The Sage Group pic; Sun Life Financial Services of Canada, Inc.

Key Dates:

1979:: Misys is founded to provide computer systems to insurance brokers in the United Kingdom.
1989:: Misys stock is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
1994:: Misys acquires Kapiti, a financial services software firm with 15 international offices.
2001:: Misys acquires DBS Management pic and Arizona-based Sunquest Information Systems Inc.

Misys PLC

views updated May 21 2018

Misys PLC

Burleigh House
Chapel Oak
Salford Priors
Evesham WR11 8SP
United Kingdom
Telephone: ( + 44) 1386-871-373
Fax: ( + 44) 1386-871-045
Web site: http://www.misys.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1979 as Misys Microcomputer Systems
Employees: 6,500
Sales: £848.6 million ($1.22 billion) (2001)
Stock Exchanges: London
Ticker Symbol: MSY
NAIC: 541511 Custom Computer Programming Services; 5112 Software Publishers

Sometimes called the United Kingdom’s Microsoft, Misys PLC is at least that country’s leading independent information technology (IT) company. Unlike its behemoth U.S. counterpart, however, Misys, which posted revenues of nearly £850 million in 2001, concentrates on providing applications software solutions for the international banking, insurance, IFA (independent financial advisors), and healthcare industries. Originally focused on the insurance sector, Misys has achieved rapid growth through an aggressive acquisition program, with purchases including banking and security software group Kapiti—renamed Misys International Banking Systems in 2001; the acquisition of ACT Group PLC (now split into Misys Asset Management Systems and Misys Securities Trading Systems) in 1995; the $923 million purchase of U.S.-based medical software provider Medic Computer Systems, made in 1997; and the $400 million acquisition of Sunquest Information Systems Inc. in 2001. Misys, which trades on the London stock exchange—and made history in 1998 when it became the first IT stock to trade in the FTSE 100—is led by Chairman and cofounder Kevin Lomax.

Software Success in the 1980s

Misys PLC was founded as Misys Microcomputer Systems by Kevin Lomax, one-time rising star within the Hanson Plc conglomerate, insurance broker Peter Morgan, whom Lomax met in a hospital maternity ward where both were awaiting the births of their children, and investors John and Jeremy Beasley. The company’s initial purpose was to develop microcomputer systems and software to service the insurance industry. Lomax, however, was to prove the driving force behind Misys’s later growth.

Lomax had entered the Hanson conglomerate in 1970 after graduating from the University of Manchester. By 1973, Lomax had gained a position as managing director of Hanson’s British Furnaces subsidiary. At the age of 25, Lomax had become the youngest managing director in Hanson’s history. Lomax then went on to take top positions at Wellman Incandescent Ltd. In the meantime, Lomax had become one of the founding investors in Misys. His investment gave him the title of non-executive chairman, while Lomax continued to pursue his career, becoming head of the electronics components division of Standard Telephone Company.

Misys struggled along in its first few years. Early losses forced the company to restrict its focus to developing applications and hardware systems targeting the insurance sector. The company remained small and continued building up debt.

Disagreements over strategy led to Lomax’s resignation from his post at Standard Telephone Company. Lomax began to seek a new direction for his career. As he related to the Daily Telegraph: “My wife told me, rather unhelpfully, that I was clearly unemployable and if I thought I was so great I should get on and build my own business.” Lomax’s wife’s advice proved more helpful than Lomax had thought. Looking about for prospects, Lomax settled on his investment in Misys, telling the Daily Telegraph: “I looked at little Misys, which was sitting there with 30 people and debts of £300,000 and thought, well, maybe I should have a go.”

Lomax convinced Misys’s other investors to give him six months to turn the company around, and in 1985, Lomax took on an active role as Misys chairman. Within a year Lomax had helped the company pay off its debts and even to make a profit of £0.5 million. The company continued to build organically over the next couple of years, increasing its customer base. In 1987, the company went public, with a placement on the U.K. Unlisted Securities Market.

The company remained tiny—its listing placed its worth at just £8.5 million. Yet the public offering marked a new phase in the company’s growth strategy. The company now began to diversify its operations, moving away from its roots targeting the insurance broker sector. Over the next several years, the company began making a number of acquisitions, while also investing strongly in developing its own software packages. An important element of the company’s new growth strategy came in 1989, when the company’s stock joined the London main board. Among the company’s new markets was the information services sector, particularly applications targeting the leisure and construction industries.

Diversified Software Leader in the 21st Century

In 1992, Misys moved into the financial services sector for the first time, when it implemented new software and support services for the United Kingdom’s IFA market. The company then acquired a 20 percent share in Countrywide, a cooperative organization handling the administration needs of a group of IFAs. Misys soon took over full control of Countrywide. Its new subsidiary was to serve as the core around which the company developed its IFA sector business throughout the decade.

Financial services remained the focus of Misys’s growth ambitions in the early 1990s. In 1994, the company took a major step forward, when it acquired Kapiti, a developer of software for international banking groups. Kapiti gave Misys an entirely new scope, and, with 15 offices operating worldwide, enabled Misys to move beyond the U.K. market for the first time. Adding Kapiti helped boost the company’s revenues past £93 million in 1994, while the company’s profits were soaring, to nearly £19 million. With its international sales now representing 25 percent of total turnover, Misys began looking for more acquisitions, particularly an entry into the high-powered U.S. market.

The Kapiti acquisition proved to be only the first of several during the decade that were to transform Misys into the United Kingdom’s leading independent IT company. The company now abandoned its remaining hardware systems and support operations to focus entirely on the development of software for the financial services sector. This market was undergoing a huge growth spurt in the 1990s as bank and other financial institutions came to rely on computer technology.

In 1995, Misys acquired the ACT Group, which specialized in banking software. This purchase helped the company boost its position not only in the United Kingdom, but worldwide. With its new acquisitions, Misys had become the outright leader in the worldwide financial services software sector, numbering some 45 of the world’s top 50 banks as its clients.

The following year, Misys began to make its mark in the United States. In 1996, the company made two strategic acquisitions in that market, paying $94 million for The Frustum Group Inc. and $50 million for Summit Systems Inc. These acquisitions were followed by a still larger purchase that also saw the company expand into a new market. In November 1997, Misys paid more than $920 million to acquire Medic Computer Systems. That purchase gave Misys a top-five spot among healthcare IT companies. With clients numbering more than 11,000 practices and 65,000 doctors, the deal made Misys a major supplier of practice management software and medical records systems for the nation’s healthcare practitioners. By then, Misys’s revenues had swelled past £300 million.

The following year, Misys found itself being dubbed the U.K. Microsoft as its share price soared. Riding high on a surge in demand at the end of the decade—as customers rushed to ready themselves for the potentially catastrophic Y2K bug—Misys saw its market value top £2.8 billion. Misys’s surge in value earned the company a place on the FTSE 100, becoming the first IT company to crack the prestigious U.K. index. The company’s position was to prove on-again, off-again, as a drop in its share price saw it fall out of the FTSE 100 at the end of that same year.

At the beginning of 1999, Misys acquired CATS, based in California, giving it a world-leading position as a maker of risk management systems for banks. This acquisition coincided with Misys’s move to focus its operations around its two strongest divisions, banking and healthcare. As part of its reorientation, the company sold off its information services division, which had been generating more than £47 million in sales and operating profits of £5 million, to the venture capital division of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson for £35 million. Following the disposal, the company’s Banking and Securities division alone was worth 60 percent of the company’s total turnover; the Healthcare division represented 31 percent of sales.

Company Perspectives:

Our philosophy is to enhance shareholder value, measured by the growth and stability of long-term cash flows and achieved through: committed and experienced management; proven financial controls; substantial ongoing investment in product development; selective investment in well-positioned businesses.

Our mission is to partner with our customers to deliver outstanding IT solutions to essential industries.

Misys went online in 1999, opening its business-to-business portals, m-link and i2i-link, geared toward the financial advisor and insurance sectors. The company also made an attempt to turn its financial services expertise toward the consumer public, when it launched two Internet-based financial services portals. Those ventures, screentrade.com and theformula.com, which started up in 2000, gave site visitors access to comparison tools and other services for car insurance and mortgage rates and other financial products. Neither site was successful, however, and in mid-2001 the company made the decision to pull the plug on both. Elsewhere on the Internet, Misys joined in an alliance with Healtheon Corp., which then merged into Web MD, forming the leading U.S. healthcare portal. As part of the alliance, Misys received a stake in the company worth an estimated $5.5 billion, in exchange for rolling out its e-commerce services through Misys’s medical practice software.

Misys took 2000 off to digest its acquisitions and to recover from an industrywide slowdown relating to the run-up to the Y2K bug. Although sales grew slightly, to £698 million in 2000 from £628 million the year before, the company saw a drop in profitability.

The company was back on the growth trail by the following year. In June 2001, the company offered £75 million to acquire rival IFA services provider DBS Management. That deal was followed by an even larger purchase, when the company announced an agreement to pay $404 million to acquire Sunquest Information Systems. The purchase of that U.S.-based business helped Misys achieve its aim of broadening its healthcare business. The move also presented the future potential of linking Medic’s physician-based operations to Sunquest’s hospital-focused activity, providing an integrated communication platform between the two markets. The two deals helped the company’s revenues grow to nearly £850 million by the end of its 2001 year.

A slump in the worldwide financial sector at midyear forced the company to post a profits warning. The September 11 attacks dashed the company’s hopes for a quick turnaround. In an effort to revive the company’s core banking division, Misys rebranded its Midas-Kapiti International division as Misys International Banking Systems at the beginning of October 2001. The company then restructured its banking and securities division, adding two new entities, one for the asset management market, the other targeting the securities trading sector. Continued uncertainty over the worldwide financial market dogged the company through the end of the year. Yet Lomax insisted on looking beyond the company’s share price and focused instead on Misys’s strong growth prospects for the years ahead.

Principal Subsidiaries

ACT Financial Systems Limited; ACT Financial Systems S.A. (France); ACT Financial Systems (Asia Pacific) Limited (Hong Kong); Kindle Banking Systems Limited (Ireland); Kindle Systems PVT Limited (India); Misys International Banking Systems; The Frustum Group Inc. (U.S.A.); Summit Systems S.A. (France); Summit Systems Inc. (U.S.A.); Summit Systems International Limited; Misys Securities Trading Systems; Misys Asset Management Systems; Medic Computer Systems LLC (U.S.A.); Sunquest Information Systems Inc.; Misys Healthcare Systems; Countrywide Insurance Marketing Limited; CWA Claims Services Limited; Misys Financial Systems Limited; Countrywide Independent Advisers Limited; Financial Options Limited; IFA Network Limited; Kestrel Financial Management Limited; DBS Management; Misys IFA Services plc; AssureWeb.

Principal Divisions

Banking and Securities; Healthcare; Financial Services; B2B Internet Services.

Principal Competitors

Applied Systems, Inc; CareCentric, Inc.; CareFlow Net, Inc.; DST Systems, Inc.; Dynamic Healthcare Technologies, Inc.; e-MedSoft.com; Financial Models Company Inc.; Global Med Technologies, Inc.; Hummingbird Ltd.; IMS MAXIMS plc; Patient Care Technologies, Inc.; royalblue group plc; The Sage Group plc; SunGard Data Systems Inc.; Transaction Systems Architects, Inc.

Key Dates:

1979:: Misys Microcomputer Systems begins operation as developer of software and hardware systems.
1985:: Kevin Lomax takes over as chairman.
1987:: Company places stock on London’s Unlisted Securities Market.
1989:: Misys is listed on the London stock exchange.
1992:: The company acquires 30 percent of Countrywide, an administrative services provider to independent financial advisors (IFA) sector, then takes over full control of Countrywide.
1994:: Misys acquires banking software developer Kapiti as part of focus on financial services sector.
1995:: The company acquires ACT Group and becomes worldwide financial services software leader.
1996:: Misys expands into the United States with acquisitions of The Frustum Group and Summit Systems.
1997:: Misys enters U.S. healthcare market with $900 million purchase of Medic Computer Systems.
1999:: Company acquires California-based CATS Software, a leading financial risk management software provider.
2001:: Misys acquires Sunquest Information Systems for $400 million; rebrands banking software division as Misys International Banking Systems.