iSoft has left putative partner IBA fuming at the altar and run off with German health technology outfit CompuGROUP.

IBA was hoping to get court approval for its tortuous takeover of iSoft next week at a price of around £125m. The company’s rescue plan was almost sunk by iSoft partner CSC which is the main contractor responsible for actually getting the firm’s software up and running in the NHS.

However, iSoft announced yesterday that it had accepted a 66 pence per share offer from CompuGROUP, valuing iSoft at around £160m.

CompuGROUP and iSoft have already headed off any threat to the deal from CSC, with a “mutually satisfactory solution”, that will see CSC “take full control of certain of its obligations in respect of the National Program for IT.”

As part of this agreement, CSC effectively takes over the iSoft obligations to the NHS. CSC will receive source code, assets and staff underpinning the NHS versions of iSoft’s Lorenzo software, and other packages. CSC also gets a license to further develop Lorenzo, both in the UK and in other countries. In return CSC will pay “an undisclosed consideration to iSoft.”

Koblenz-based CompuGROUP had turnover of &euro140.12 last year, and has around 1,300 employees. The firm reckons its takeover of iSoft will create “one of the world’s leading health software companies.” CompuGROUP said it had grown largely by acquisition to date, and would continue to buy up other companies after the iSoft buy. ®