LAS VEGAS – Once again a credit union data processor that is focused on larger asset credit unions has acquired a processor geared to the lower end of the credit union market. Plano, Texas-based Aurum Technology, which was spun off from EDS' community banking division, has acquired Salt Lake City-based Computer Consultants Corporation (CCCorp), one of the few remaining independent CU data processors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Aurum, with its flagship Miser product, tends to focus on higher asset CUs, while CCCorp has made a living with credit unions below $100 million – of which it currently serves 600. At the tail end of last year Jack Henry & Associates, parent company of credit union data processor Symitar Systems (which targets larger CUs) acquired CU Solutions to give it entrance into the lower asset level. CCCorp CEO Hugh Butler founded the company back in 1977. He's seen the CU data processing market go through a number of metamorphoses, and knew this time he had to hook up with a partner that could take the company's Mercury product into the future. Butler couldn't help but be a little sentimental about selling. "It's a life's work, a life's achievement. Without Aurum we would have become a boutique business. No one should be like that in the software business any more. I knew that. This will be a life transition," said Butler. Butler and CCCorp's 41 employees will all stay on the job in their Salt Lake City office once the deal is complete. Butler will transition to Aurum SVP. CCCorp President Charlene Whitener will lead Aurum's Salt Lake City-based support and services team. Dan Chavitage, a well-known credit union consultant, will join Aurum as a result of this deal and be responsible for the CCCorp product development team, with a goal of positioning its product for mid-sized credit unions. Aurum plans to immediately ramp up CCCorp's core product, Mercury. CCCorp scored a first in the industry a few years back by launching Mercury, which was completely designed around Microsoft's .NET capability and SQL server functionality. Butler believes the Mercury product has the potential to serve CUs as small as $1 million to as large as $1 billion, but it will need Aurum's help with third-party add-on products. "Just as Microsoft wants to penetrate every household and every small business plus Fortune 500 companies, we want to make the Mercury Platform attractive at the high end of the market," said Butler. Aurum President/CEO and Chairman Paul Bourke said CCCorp fills a hole for Aurum, that being the lower end of the market. "We have a small but credible marketshare at the high-end of the market. In the Miser platform while we have a robust offering at the high end, from a cost of ownership standpoint we weren't going to be able to bring that product down market," said Bourke. He noted that Aurum really started thinking about moving down market mid-2002, and that strategy was validated by Jack Henry doing the same with the acquisition of CU Solutions. While Aurum also serves community banks, Bourke said there are some characteristics of the CU market that makes it a very attractive growth segment for Aurum. "The market has been growing faster than the banking market. The suppliers are pretty fragmented, even though Fiserv and Jack Henry are two of the large market players as they are in the banking market. With credit unions looking for many of the capabilities that banks have had in the past, particularly commercial banking, it's logical for Aurum to expand in the credit union space," said Bourke. Though CCCorp is now used at CUs with $100 million in assets and below, Bourke believes Aurum can ramp up the product to move it up to the $200 million level in a relatively short period of time. [email protected]