GGC Software Holdings, an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital and Infor, has agreed to acquire Lawson Software. Following completion of the transaction, the combined suite of Infor and Lawson will create a unique set of industry-specific applications serving more than 75,000 customers and produce a global leader in verticals such as manufacturing, health care, distribution, public sector and hospitality.

"Infor and Lawson will create a rich, integrated enterprise application suite,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor. “After the transaction closes, we plan to integrate many of the applications as soon after closing as possible, facilitated by a standards-based approach and the fact that both companies' applications are already service-enabled. We also plan to innovate and change how customers deploy, use, and upgrade enterprise applications. We have a long list of ideas to improve the customer experience and deliver value through a singular focus on enterprise applications, accelerated investment, and a strong incentive to challenge convention."

Infor's manufacturing, supply chain, product lifecycle, workforce, and asset management products, with Lawson's best-in-class enterprise financials and human resources products will improve business process flows and reduce integration costs via single sign-on, common look-and-feel and seamless navigation across composite applications deployed on-premise and in the cloud.

Infor has already announced an accelerated plan to hire 400 additional software engineers and ship approximately 60-percent more products and enhancements as compared to last year. In addition, the company plans to reduce the need for customizations, take responsibility for more localizations, and make reports and user extensions easier to upgrade, it said.

Infor and Lawson will also offer richer and deeper functionality in the verticals where the companies have complementary strengths such as healthcare, state and local government, wholesale distribution, fashion, food and beverage, equipment rental and service, and process and discrete manufacturing.

The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.