HARNESSING THE WINDS OF CHANGE

It took six different written offers, but Steve Achelis finally agreed to sell his company earlier this month.

Since founding Equis International in 1983, Achelis had built his firm into the leading supplier of investment analysis software in the world. With more than 40,000 customers worldwide and 1995 revenues of more than $5 million, Equis seemed poised for great things.But as Achelis looked forward, he realized that the "rapidness of change" around him made it necessary to find a larger partner.

So three weeks ago Achelis agreed to sell Equis to Reuters America in an all-cash deal for an undisclosed amount.

Reuters' benefits

Achelis identified two primary factors in his decision to sell to Reuters.

One, its size, with more than $4 billion in revenues in 1995. And two, the fact that Reuters is the largest provider of financial information in the world. In other words, it's in the content business.

Interestingly, Achelis says he had an offer on the table when Reuters approached him in September.

"We could try to hide from the change (occurring around us), or we could take what we have and try to harness the change," Achelis said.

Most companies don't recognize how the Internet and personal computers will change, and are changing, how everything is done, he added.

This rapid pace of change is "like a tornado ripping across the plains," Achelis said. "There's so much energy in this (the ongoing technological changes), that it's tearing up the dirt and the homes and everything in its path."

That's why Achelis decided to sell: to allow Equis to be an agent of change instead of an object of change.

As of today, Equis will remain based in Salt Lake City. As part of the Reuters acquisition, Equis and its products will be integrated into Pennsylvania-based Reality On-line, a Reuters company.

WordPerfect sale thoughts

If all goes according to plan, Novell will announce next week that it will sell its Business Applications Division to Corel, based in Ottawa, Canada.

According to my sources, Corel representatives were in town meeting with Novell and BizApps players on Wednesday and were slated to be in Orem and Provo through Friday.