Monday, December 5, 2011

Bottomline buys a pair of firms, gets health care tech

By Rodney H. Brown

Bottomline Technologies Inc. of Portsmouth, N.H., is continuing its 2011 acquisition strategy, buying a pair of companies, one of which adds to its health care technology offerings, the company said in a release.

Logical Progression of North Carolina was acquired by Bottomline (Nasdaq: EPAY) to incorporate its product Logical Ink, a tablet-based document automation solution for the health care industry, into Bottomline’s health care technology suite. The company, based in Durham, was founded in 2005. No financial details of the acquisition were disclosed.

In addition, Bottomline bought a longtime partner and reseller in the United Kingdom, IDT Ltd. That purchase will add more than 140 customers to Bottomline’s customer base, the release stated. No financial information for that deal was released either.

Bottomline did state, however, that it had “granted 60,000 shares of restricted common stock to four employees who have joined Bottomline” as part of the purchases. Earlier today, Bottomline filed a document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating it had placed equities worth $1.26 million with a total of four unnamed individuals or organizations.

This April, Bottomline paid $48 million to buy Allegient Systems, a Wilton, Conn.-based provider of legal e-billing, bill review and analytics for insurance companies. That followed the August 2010 purchase of Bank of America’s PayMode electronic invoice and payment product, as well as its operations and vendor network, a deal which brought in an $8.5 million investment from Bank of America.

In June 2010, Bottomline announced plans to raise $57.6 million in a public offering of its stock shares, selling 4.2 million shares at a price of $14.50 per share.