Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Plans to Expand Online Software Solutions with Agreement to Acquire Acclipse

RIVERWOODS, Ill., July 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --  Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting announced the signing of an agreement to acquire Acclipse Limited, a leading provider of online accounting software, serving accounting firms in Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. The parties anticipate completing the acquisition on Friday, July 13, 2012.

With this planned acquisition, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting will further expand and complement its existing offering of advanced information and software solutions, including cloud-based solutions, for accounting firms and corporate finance professionals in the region. Acclipse will become part of the division's Asia Pacific-based business, which goes to market as CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business. Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting is the global leading provider of tax, accounting and audit solutions and services.

"The acquisition of Acclipse will further advance Wolters Kluwer's leadership position in providing software and cloud solutions for accounting firms and finance professionals, and our strategic expansion into collaborative accounting solutions, building on our acquisition of Twinfield in the Netherlands in 2011," said Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting CEO, Kevin Robert.

President of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Asia Pacific and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific, Russell Evans, said the acquisition will be an important step in the region for Wolters Kluwer's strategy to expand its offering of online software and content solutions for accountants and their clients.

"This acquisition will respond to the growing demand from accounting firms for genuine cloud-based software to support a 24/7, value-added service to clients while lowering cost of ownership. We firmly believe that cloud computing has the potential to transform how accountants work with their clients," he said.

The acquisition of Acclipse will complement Wolters Kluwer 2011 acquisition of Business Fitness New Zealand, a provider of practical content and workpapers to accounting firms, to standardize many of the common processes for compliance work.

As Business Fitness New Zealand is already integrated with the Acclipse Document Management solution, Business Fitness New Zealand clients will benefit from its content being available online.

"This end-to-end, integrated solution will be a key point of differentiation for CCH," Evans continued.

"CCH knows that accounting firms are trusted advisers to SMEs. The Acclipse suite, which was designed from the ground up to help accountants better service their clients, is at the heart of what we do. CCH will now be better placed more than ever to leverage our deep subject-matter expertise, global presence, rich content assets and robust technology platforms to help accounting firms work hand-in-hand with their SME clients, and ensure 'true collaboration'," he said.

"When combined with CCH's outstanding content, Acclipse's cloud-based accounting solution will give CCH a unique offering − a fully integrated suite of software, workpapers, templates and checklists, deep research content and subject-matter expertise. We're calling this offering CCH iFirm − the all-embracing firm in the cloud."

CEO and founder of Acclipse, Mike Chisholm, said Acclipse is pleased with plans to join CCH.

"This acquisition will allow Acclipse to remain focused on our core competency − offering accountants and their clients great online accounting software. The global reach of CCH and Wolters Kluwer will allow us to expand the reach of our iFirm and iBizz products, and integrate these with relevant content sources to bring accountants and their clients together and achieve significant productivity improvements," Chisholm said.

With 55 employees and headquarters in Christchurch, Acclipse services over 1,000 firms and 10,000 licensed users in New Zealand, Australia and Asia Pacific.

About Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting
Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, a division of Wolters Kluwer, is the global leading provider of tax, accounting and audit information, software and services. Wolters Kluwer, is a market-leading global information services company. Wolters Kluwer had 2011 annual revenues of 3.4 billion euros, employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, and maintains operations across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.  Please visit the website for more information.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by words such as "expect," "should," "could," "shall," and similar expressions. Wolters Kluwer cautions that such forward-looking statements are qualified by certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from what is contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Factors which could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, general economic conditions; conditions in the markets in which Wolters Kluwer is engaged; behavior of customers, suppliers, and competitors; technological developments; the implementation and execution of new ICT systems or outsourcing; and legal, tax, and regulatory rules affecting Wolters Kluwer's businesses, as well as risks related to mergers, acquisitions, and divestments. In addition, financial risks such as currency movements, interest rate fluctuations, liquidity, and credit risks could influence future results. The foregoing list of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Wolters Kluwer disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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