Bottomline acquires UK firm

Bottomline Technologies is spending nearly $8 million to acquire SMA Financial Ltd., a London-based provider of off-site cloud software for automated payments and financial messaging, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.In a press release (which didn’t mention the purchase price), the Portsmouth-based provider of payroll services and software said that the acquisition will contribute less than $1 million in revenue per quarter in fiscal 2011 and be dilutive by approximately 4 cents, 3 cents and 2 cents in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively — solely due to the impact of the accounting treatment of acquired deferred revenue. The deal is expected to increase the company’s “core” net income in 2012 and beyond.Bottomline has enough cash and equivalents on hand for the deal — $136 million at the end of last quarter, more than $12 million more than it had at the beginning of the quarter, according to a filing last week with the SEC.The company posted a posting a net profit of $2.7 million that quarter, up from the $1.1 million it made during the first quarter of last year. The company reported $42 million in revenue, up from $36.6 million same quarter of the previous year. SMA Financial has developed a way to more easily access the SWIFT Network used to by financial institutions to exchange messages, involving such information as payment instructions and cash reporting.Bottomline agreed to pay 5 million British pounds for the company, which translates into $7.9 million based on current exchange rates. — BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW