US software vendors dominate in Europe while UK companies hold only a limited market share in the region, according to the latest rankings by PAC.

London – January 29, 2009 – The UK has a diverse software market compared to its European counterparts, but the country’s vendors have struggled to match the presence of their North American counterparts across Europe.

In PAC’s latest rankings of the 200 largest software vendors in Europe (based on annual revenue from the region), US players dominate with 15 of the top 20 rankings and 70 of the top 200 positions. UK software firms account for just two of the top ten slots (Sage and Logica), and 34 of the top 200 positions.

But while they pale alongside the strength of the US firms in Europe, UK suppliers actually fare a lot better when compared to their peers in Germany and France, which account for 19 and 20 of the top 200 rankings respectively. UK players tend to remain local or develop larger business outside of Europe, such as Misys in the US.  More recently, Autonomy announced that it is prepared to buy US content management firm Interwoven to boost its presence in North America.

However, PAC expects the worsening economic climate to accelerate supplier consolidation, particularly among medium-sized players in the European software market. Recent deals involving UK players have included Northgate’s purchase of Arinso, and Sage’s acquisition of numerous UK/European software players (XRT, Tekton etc), Fidessa/LatentZero, and Iris/CS Group.

While the systems infrastructure software business is dominated by the larger American corporates like Microsoft and IBM, the European-based players have a strong application software business with players SAP and Sage being the two European-based leaders.

About Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC):

PAC is a global market research and strategic consulting firm for the Software and IT Services Industry (SITSI). PAC helps IT vendors, CIOs, consultancies and investment firms by delivering analysis and advice to address a range of growth, technology, financial and operational issues.

Our 30+-year heritage in Europe – combined with our US presence and worldwide resources – forms the foundation of our ability to deliver in-depth knowledge of local IT markets, anywhere. We employ structured methodologies – undertaking thousands of annual face-to-face interviews on both the buy and sell side of the market, as well as a bottom-up, top-down approach – to leverage our research effectively.

PAC publishes a wide range of off-the-shelf and customized market reports –including our best-selling SITSI® program – in addition to our suite of strategic consulting and market planning services. Over 160 professionals in 16 offices –across all continents – are delivering the insight that can make a difference to your business.

For more information, please visit our website at www.pac-online.com