ISSCO Will Buy 60% of Swedish Software Firm

SAN DIEGO — In an acquisition that would broaden its product line beyond graphics software packages, San Diego-based Integrated Software Systems Inc. on Wednesday announced an agreement in principle to acquire a 60% interest in Mimer Information Systems AB, an Uppsala, Sweden, based developer and marketer of data base computer software. The acquisition would give ISSCO, which markets business and scientific software products that convert data into graphics, a new product line in what ISSCO spokesman John Ulf called the “growing integrated relational data base computer software market.”

If the deal is completed, ISSCO will have the option of acquiring an additional 31% of privately held Mimer. ISSCO did not release the financial terms of the proposed acquisition.

Ulf said ISSCO’s interest in Mimer was generated by “synergy” between the two companies’ product lines.

“Almost all of our customers are larger-type corporations which are interested in this (Mimer’s) more modern type of data base,” Ulf said. “We have no intention of changing our primary focus on data representation, but there are areas of synergy.”

In February, ISSCO reported record revenues and earnings for 1985. Net income for the year increased 41% to $4.2 million and revenues jumped 39% to $33.6 million.