DESCARTES AGREES TO BUY CENTRICITY, ACQUIRES TRANSETTLEMENTS

DESCARTES AGREES TO BUY CENTRICITY, ACQUIRES TRANSETTLEMENTS    Descartes Systems Group Inc., a provider of collaborative logistics technology, has contracted to buy Centricity Inc., a provider of ground transportation optimization services.
   The acquisition brings Descartes stage center into the complex market for developing multimodal optimization solutions for shippers, a cutting-edge logistics concept. Centricity’s focus has been on U.S.-based trucking operations.
   Peter Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer of Descartes, said “Centricity’s industry experts have worked together for 10 years to build transportation optimization solutions,” and that the deal will help Descartes to deliver optimization software across multiple modes.
   Descartes will likely use the software to bolster its image in the logistics software arena and to enhance its competition against more established optimization solutions providers, such as i2 Technologies, Manugistics and Global Logistics Technologies. To date, Decartes’ has focused more on tracking and trace technology and transport connectivity.
   Centricity’s founders, Mark Rainosek, Gregory Quinet, and Manuel Pachano, “along with other key Centricity employees,” will continue to work at Descartes, Schwartz said.
   Rainosek, president of Centricity, noted Descartes’s “depth of application functionality, breadth of collaborative relationships, and connectivity to shippers and carriers.”
   Centricity’s shareholders will be issued 1.3 million common shares of Descartes stock. Descartes will assume Centricity’s stock option plan. The deal is subject to approval by shareholders of Centricity, based in Atlanta.
   Descartes also said it has acquired TranSettlements Inc. of Atlanta, a provider of logistics messaging services for ground transportation.
   Descartes claims it will now process about 70 percent of ground transportation messaging in North America, 80 percent of North American air cargo messaging and 50 percent of worldwide air cargo messaging. These messages include shipment notifications, in-transit shipment status updates and proof of delivery.
   Descartes, based in Waterloo, Ontario, markets more than 30 electronic commerce applications and solutions worldwide.