Iona Technologies to Acquire Netfish for $270 Million in Stock

Iona Technologies (IONA Quote) agreed to acquire Netfish for 5.5 million common shares in a transaction valued at about $270 million.

Iona expects to close the acquisition in the second quarter. In recent Nasdaq activity, Iona gained $7.19, or 14.7%, to $56.38.

Netfish, a privately held company based in Santa Clara, Calif., provides XML-based integrated processes to businesses. Iona plans to use Netfish technology in its e-business integration platform, Iona Suite.

Iona will absorb all 300 Netfish employees. Ravi Iyer, Netfish's CEO, will become executive vice president of market development at Iona.

Netfish offices, which are located in the U.S., Paris, London, Stockholm and Tokyo, will remain open until there is proof of overlap, an Iona spokesman said. The possibility of employee redundancy is small because Netfish has few administrative and support employees, he added.