Elibrium gains French owners

By Timothy Roberts

April 21, 2004

French software company BVRP closed Wednesday on its $15 million purchase of San Mateo software publisher Elibrium LLC and gave it a new name: Avanquest.

BVRP announced its intentions in February, but didn't close on the deal until now. The new arrangement gives the San Mateo firm a worldwide audience for the software it publishes, which includes 40 current titles.

Elibrium had been a division of ClickAction of Palo Alto until 2001, when Senior Vice President and General Manager Christina Seelye led the executive team in a buyout of the company. Ms. Seelye is now CEO of Avanquest USA.

With acquisition of Elibrium, BVRP now has five software retailers worldwide. It is renaming all of them Avanquest. In addition to serving as CEO of Avanquest USA, Ms. Seelye also serves as executive director of the company's global operations. San Mateo is the U.S. headquarters; Munich, Germany, is the European headquarters.

The combined company, says Ms. Seelye, "Allows us an edge up on other software publishes. Now we can offer not just the U.S. market, but a global one."

Avanquest USA sells most of its software through the 10,000 retail locations of OfficeMax, Staples, Office Depot and CompuUSA.