Business
Internationally, Exact grew by acquiring Belgian firms Cobul and Cubic (17,000 customers) in 1989. The opening of offices in the United Kingdom and Russia meant that, as of 1995, 20% of Exact's revenue came from abroad.[4] Expansion into the German market soon followed with the acquisition of Pcas, Bavaria Soft, Szymaniak (1997) and finally Soft Research (1999), German market leader in payroll software.[5]
In the 2000s, Exact acquired US manufacturing ERP software providers Macola, JobBOSS and MAX.[6] In 2007, Exact purchased Longview Solutions for US$51.5 million.[7] Longview Solutions got sold off to Marlin Equity Partners in July 2014 for an undisclosed amount of money.[8]
The mid-2000s saw Exact embroiled in internal power struggles. In 2004, founder Eduard Hagens returned from ten months of sailing round the world, to find his company reorganized in a decentralized way that did not suit his vision of how Exact should be led. Hagens clashed with CEO Lucas Brentjens and CFO Bert Groenewegen, leading to the resignation in September and October of that year of Brentjens, Groenewegen, and subsequently the company's entire board of directors.[9] Hagens's "coup" (as de Volkskrant put it) caused a staff drain within the company. The following April, after the resignation of the company's new CFO, Hagens announced his own departure.[10] He was succeeded by Rajesh Patel.[11]
In October 2014, Exact announced a buy-out by Apax Partners.[12] That acquisition was completed in April, 2015 for a sum of €730 million.[13] The acquisition meant that Exact was de-listed from the Euronext stock exchange, on which it had been listed since 1999.[14]
Exact expanded its presence to the construction sector in the spring of 2019 with the takeover of bouw7;[15]
In 2019, Exact also added the Belgian WinBooks[16] to the organization. WinBooks is a software company specialized in accounting and business management solutions.
In the autumn of 2020, Exact announced both the acquisition of the Belgian HR software supplier Officient[17] and the acquisition of Unit4 Bedrijfssoftware,[18] the business unit of Unit4 that serves the accountancy, SME and large business markets in the Netherlands and Belgium.
