NCR Acquires Retalix

If one of the thermal characteristics of an industry is M&A activity (and it is), then NCR is keeping it hot.  Last year, the Ohio-based ATM powerhouse took a major step through its acquisition of Radiant Systems, a $1.2B bet on retail transaction automation.  Today it took a second $650M large step into retail automation waters with its offer to acquire Israeli firm Retalix, a developer of enterprise-scale retail systems.

Software and systems are the heart of these acquisitions.  While Radiant makes and sells hardware optimized for point of sale and order entry it's the company's software that matters.  The same's true for the Retalix offer.