Bottomline's latest acquisition is OKd

Bottomline Technologies has won regulatory approval to acquire Albany Software Ltd. for about $32 million, the latest in a series of acquisitions by the Portsmouth company as it expands its financial services business.

The company said the deal – first announced last march – will enable company to access the British firm's 5,000 business customers to pay their bills via United Kingdom's BACS system, a central electronic payment clearinghouse set up by 16 leading banks and building societies.

BACS process about 6 billion transactions a year.

If the deal closes as expected, it will be the third acquisition by Bottomline this calendar year and its ninth since October 2010. The last three purchases in fiscal 2012 (which ended June 30) were Intuit's commercial banking division, Logical Progression Group and IDT Ltd. They cost the company $23.8 million in cash, according to last week's annual financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company had about $125 million in cash at the end of the fiscal year, up from $112 million in 2011, according to the filing.

While most of Bottomline's revenue is generated by its software products used by businesses, an increasing amount is due to providing Internet banking solutions and outsourced payments and invoicing systems, especially to such specialized segments such as law firms. Indeed, in fiscal 2012 the latter two segments accounted more than half ($113 million) of the company's revenue ($224 million) for the first time.

The Albany deal could also expand the company British's base. UK sales already represent 29 percent of Bottomline's revenue, according to the SEC filing.

The filing also revealed a new lawsuit filed by ACI Worldwide Inc. in Atlanta, Ga.,. charging that Bottomline unjustly gained ACI's trade secrets – primarily its customer list – through former ACI employees.

Bottomline is fighting the charges, which are now in federal court in Georgia.