He meant it as, sungard is now the backer, and their combined balance sheet is much stronger then Andover's by it's own.
Ok, so did Sungard completely consume Andover? Or did they make some sort of investment in them and partner with them only.
Quite a few years ago, some guys I tutored and consulted for their corporation quit and went to work for Sungard. They provided financial back office computer services to others in the industry, so that those firms didn't have to compete in the Technology Industry (you know, hiring, firing, training, staffing, archiving, programming, maintaining data centers and so forth). At that time, many of their customers were glad to fire their staffs or sell them wholesale to Sungard and then let them be their employee. PWC recently sold their Technology Consulting Practice(s) to IBM. IBM just landed the JPMorgan $7Billion/4yr tecnology contract. All those consultants, staff, managers, vice presidents and so forth instantly became unemployed, provided that IBM didn't pick them up. Evidently the trend in the industry will be further consolidation, particularly in the Technology side of the houses, so that the customers can concentrate on their core businesses and not on all the staffing/budgetary requirements of a Technology department. Running a data center, keeping staff, maintaining software, keeping contract services up to date and the never ending "latest and greatest widgets" have been vastly too expensive for most firms, and they will be inclined to this wave of outsourcing. The Andover Guys are some pretty sharp dudes! I'd rest well knowing that whatever deal they're in, will win! Cheers and happy trading....
Have you heard any number being thrown around for how much Andover went for or what the terms of the deal were for. I am interested to see how it compared to Cybertraders deal a few years ago.