Kewill Systems Snaps Up Tracer Research

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 12/1/1998

Shipping management software companies could become the latest acquisition target now that most makers of transportation management software have been bought up (see story on Page 57). In perhaps the first move of its kind, Kewill Systems PLC of London last month bought Tracer Research Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., for $19.6 million in cash and stock.

Tracer Research is best known as the maker of Clippership, a Windows-based shipping-management software package that produces shipping documents and provides rating and tracking for LTL motor carriers and express carriers. It will become part of Kewill's Logistics division, which provides warehouse management and distribution software.

The purchase of Tracer was Kewill's second U.S. acquisition in the past year. In November 1997, it bought North Billerica, Mass.-based Exeter Software Inc., which supplies warehouse management systems.

As part of a company reorganization earlier this year, Exeter Software changed its name to Kewill Logistics. The British parent, Kewill Systems, has U.S. offices in Foster City, Calif. It bills itself as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and supply chain management software vendor.