Broadway-Seymour Sells Off Image Software to Unisys

Unisys Corp. has bought the VisualImpact suite of image processing software, a product it has marketed for the past 18 months.

It acquired VisualImpact from Charlotte, N.C.-based Broadway & Seymour Inc. for $3 million. Broadway & Seymour will receive an additional $1.5 million to $3 million in royalties over the next three years, depending on software sales.

VisualImpact can capture paper checks and other documents and convert, store, and deliver them in electronic form.

The system can read checks written in several currencies.

Financial firms can sift through VisualImpact's archives to create specialized research reports for themselves or for their customers.

Although Unisys' information services unit has marketed VisualImpact since March 1996, the payment systems powerhouse purchased the software, along with its customer base of 49 financial institutions and staff of 20, to strengthen Unisys' position in the financial services marketplace, said company spokesman Brian C. Daly.

"The marketplace is continually dictating new requirements," he said. "We will control our own destiny better if we have the capability to make enhancements to the product ourselves rather than go to a third party to do it. We can avoid time lags between request and enhancement."

Unisys said it has no plans to change VisualImpact, though it will broaden applications of the software worldwide. Unisys, based in Blue Bell, Pa., has clients in more than 100 countries.

The company sees the technology as complementing its InfoImage Item Processing System, an image processor that runs only on Unisys ClearPath systems and which is used by Barnett Banks Inc., Comerica Inc., Huntington Bancshares Inc., and Signet Bank Corp.

The difference with VisualImpact is that it runs on Microsoft Windows NT technology.

Long a global force in payment systems, Unisys is the second-largest provider of information solutions to the financial services industry.

Half the world's checks are processed using Unisys applications, Mr. Daly said.

Acquiring VisualImpact fits in with the company's long-term strategy of shifting to service, said Michael J. Geran, vice president of research for the Pershing division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. in New Jersey.

"Most of its growth in revenue flow going forward will come from services, not hardware," Mr. Geran said.

Lawrence A. Weinbach, 57, was named chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Unisys Corp. on Tuesday. He succeeds James A. Unruh, who stepped down for personal reasons.

Mr. Weinbach, a former managing partner/chief executive of Andersen Worldwide, said he will immerse himself in Unisys to learn more about the company.

"Unisys has a great future," he said in a statement. "It is transforming itself to a services-led, technology-based information management company. That complex transformation has been difficult and Unisys has now turned the corner."

Mr. Weinbach joined Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1961 after graduating from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He was named chief executive of Andersen Worldwide in 1989 after serving as chief operating officer for two years.

He decided not to seek a third term as chief executive so he would not be bound by Andersen's mandatory retirement age of 62.

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