After a rocky 2009, Quantrix seeks growth with new owner
Quantrix, a Portland-based company that makes business intelligence and modeling software, was acquired earlier this month by IDBS, a company based in the United Kingdom. The move is designed to help both companies grow in the health care and pharmaceutical industries.
Chris Houle, CEO of Quantrix, told Mainebiz Monday that being owned by the British firm will allow his company to sell its Quantrix Modeler software to more companies worldwide that need a tool to combine analysis of their past performance with their projections to fuel future business plans. Houle says Quantrix, which employs nine people and was founded in 2002, is one of the only companies that makes software that combines these two functions.
"The combination of the two is very powerful and that's what we do," says Houle.
Data management company IDBS can provide Quantrix with more investment and technical resources to add several hundred new customers to its 800 clients worldwide, says Houle. He also anticipates the company will see strong revenue growth over the next two to five years, though he didn't specify an amount. "There's a pretty good chance we will be hiring more people," he says, but did not say how many. Houle says the Portland firm will hold onto its Quantrix name as a wholly owned subsidiary of IDBS. The price was not disclosed.
Houle says the acquisition provided an opportunity for the Portland firm to grow its business after its revenue took a beating following the September 2008 financial meltdown on Wall Street. "This has not been a good economy to raise capital," Houle says.
Two-thirds of Quantrix's business in 2007 was in financial services and that number dropped to less than 30% in 2009. "The downturn in financial services was difficult for us," he says.
Revenue in 2008 and 2009 was flat, but Houle says the company remained stable as it transitioned its software package to serve the telecommunications, engineering, energy and manufacturing sectors. He says IDBS wants to capture more business in those markets as well. "There will be a lot of cross-selling opportunities for both companies," he says.
Houle says IDBS had been a Quantrix customer since 2005 and an investor since 2006, easing the acquisition. Quantrix's software was embedded into IDBS' E-WorkBook Suite, which IDBS officials say is a widely used electronic laboratory notebook.
"This is actually a company we've been working with for a long time," Houle says.
Houle says IDBS wants to branch out into the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and that the UK company believes Quantrix's software will boost sales of the E-WorkBook Suite notebook.
IDBS was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Guildford, England. The company has offices in California, New Jersey and Massachusetts, the European Union, Australia, Japan and China, according to a company press release.
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