ENTERTAINMENT

Francisco Partners, one of the world's largest technology-focused private equity firms, and a majority shareholder of Global eXchange Services (GXS), has signed a definitive agreement to acquire G International, a business established to own and operate IBM's Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Business Exchange Services (BES) business. Following the acquisition, Gary Greenfield, president and CEO of GXS and an Operating Partner with Francisco Partners, will serve as CEO of G International. G International will be a fully integrated partner in the Francisco Partners family of companies. Francisco Partners intends to merge G International and GXS within the next six months subject to certain conditions including definitive documentation. IBM's EDI Services and Business Exchange Services are global offerings within the IBM services portfolio. "Adding the talented employees, superior services and stellar client roster of IBM's EDI and Business Exchange Services to the Francisco Partners family of companies, including GXS, is a strategic step towards becoming one of the leading integration service providers serving the world's largest business communities," stated David Stanton, chairman of Global eXchange Services and managing partner of Francisco Partners. The anticipated merger of G International and GXS, following Francisco Partners' acquisition, is expected to enhance GXS's expertise and capabilities in industries such as automotive, consumer products, financial services, high-tech and retail, and deepen direct operations in growth regions such as Latin America, Japan and Europe. "Today, our large and small business customers are asking us to help them achieve broader participation with their business partners on a global scale," said Gary Greenfield, president and CEO of GXS. "As a result of the anticipated merger, GXS will not only broaden its global presence in key geographies, but also will immediately become one of the leading B2B integration service providers." The anticipated merger also underscores GXS's ability to expand on the vision of its recently announced next-generation integration services platform - GXS Trading Grid. Trading Grid is a feature-rich integration services infrastructure that helps automate global trading communities by shielding complexity from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative efforts, and enabling a new level of process integration and business intelligence.