A SOFTWARE company turned to its long-standing legal advisors for its first acquisition, saying it expects to be making further forays into the market in the coming months.

Newcastle-based Orchard Information Systems has acquired Applaud Web Solutions in a deal advised by Newcastle commercial law firm Muckle.

Orchard provides specialist software solutions for the social housing sector and local authorities. With annual revenues of £12.7m turnover last year and 130 members of staff it is now looking to expand its business and make further acquisitions.

Middlesbrough-based software house Applaud specialises in web-based portal applications and performance management solutions for public sector and commercial organisations.

Nick Lambert, finance director at Orchard, said: “This is our first acquisition and it demonstrates our ambition for growth.

“We felt that Applaud had a worthwhile offering and a whole host of innovative ideas which we could sell to our customer base and were also keen to get the existing team on board with us. Applaud becoming part of the Orchard organisation, means it can benefit from our administration, financial management and sales and marketing resources.

“We were advised on this acquisition by Muckle, who we’ve worked with for a number of years. We considered Muckle to be the best firm to look after this acquisition for us and the legal work was hugely well managed and efficient. This was a relatively small acquisition, but it was an excellent test case for us when we look for future acquisitions.”