The ERP market has seen yet another consolidation with the buyout of Sweden-based Intentia International AB by Lawson Software Inc. The all-stock deal is worth some US$480 million, the two companies announced Thursday morning.

The merged company will have its headquarters in Stockholm, but the U.S. operations will remain in St. Paul, Minn., the current home of Lawson. The company will have 3,500 employees, with 4,000 customers in 40 countries, and is expected to cater to the service, manufacturing, distribution and maintenance sectors.

"This is not a typical software consolidation," Richard Lawson, chairman of the board at Lawson, said in a statement. "This is a combination of equal companies that has tremendous growth potential in the enterprise software market."

This transaction follows Oracle Corp."s acquisition earlier this year of PeopleSoft Inc., which made Oracle the No. 2 business applications vendor after SAP AG.

Lawson said it will provide new releases, enhancements and support to core products for the next five years. The companies also said they are committed to their vertical sales strategy. "Because there is little product and geographic overlap, the new company can retain our service and support organizations for our existing products with no disruption," said Romesh Wadhwani, chairman of the board at Intentia.

The management of the company will also get a makeover. Lawson and Wadhwani will be co-directors of the new firm, while current Lawson CEO and President Jay Coughlan intends to step down after a transition period. Taking his place will be Harry Debes, whose tenure begins June 15. Among his prior jobs, Debes was in charge of America field operations for ERP software vendor J.D. Edwards & Co., prior to its buyout by PeopleSoft.

Lawson expects the buyout to close by January.