OpenLink Buys IRM
OLF has made a move to expand their presence in Europe with the acquisition of IRM. I’ll be frank, I had not heard of IRM prior to this announcement. However, reading the press release and doing a little web research, it appears the company has developed a strong position in asset optimization, forcasting and planning for European utilities. This acquisition seems to expand OLF’s footprint, not really having served that portion of the utility value chain in the past. It will be interesting to see if they bring the product set to north America. OLF has already had a very strong presence in Europe, ranking very high in preliminary results of our European Vendor Perception Survey. In fact, these early number indicate that OLF is challenging SunGard for the most recognizable vendor on the continent. This acquisition has the potential to cement the lead in Europe for them.