SupportSoft To Sell Enterprise Business To Consona

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) — SupportSoft Inc., a provider of computer support services, Monday said it has agreed to sell its enterprise business to privately held Consona Corp. for $20 million in cash.

SupportSoft's enterprise business has been shrinking while its consumer business, anchored by Support.com, is growing, but the enterprise business still accounts for two-thirds of the Redwood City-based company's revenue.

"The transaction enables us to become a pure play provider of technology enabled services for the digital home and small office," said Josh Pickus, chief executive of SupportSoft, in a statement.

Indianapolis-based Consona provides customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning software and services. The assets bought from SupportSoft will be part of the CRM group.

The deal is expected to close during the second quarter.

SupportSoft said it expects to post enterprise revenue of $6.8 million to $6.9 million for the first quarter. That's down from $9.7 million in the fourth quarter and $10.9 million in the first quarter last year.

Meanwhile, SupportSoft expects to post consumer revenue of $3.5 million to $3.6 million for the first quarter, up from $3.1 million in the fourth quarter and $703,000 in the first quarter of 2008.

In total, SupportSoft said it expects revenue of $10.3 million to $10.5 million for the quarter that ended March 31, up from an earlier estimate of $9.5 million to $10.3 million.