Until his appointment as president of Mercury Interactive (MERQ) less than a year ago, Amon Landan was for many years professionally overshadowed by Arye Feingold. This had been true since the memorable period at Daisy Systems, after which Feingold completed the transition from hardware to software and founded Mercury Interactive. For the entire period, however, Landan was one of the important forces that shaped the company, serving as marketing manager, general manager, and now president. In his current position, all that remains is for him to learn to speak with the press and with investors, and not just the marketing team and customers.
Mercury is one of those companies that have taught Israeli industry quite a few lessons in business mores: a lesson in organizational survival, a lesson in deep penetration of one market, thereby placing the company on top of another, new market with great potential. Landan, as president of a company supplying software for automatic testing of other software, and currently automatic testing of commercial Internet sites as well, knows that, in order to exploit opportunities, you have to keep your eyes open and grab whatever chances randomly come your way. Mercury is a company in which junior development personnel can discover new directions and take their idea straight to the president.
Luck, of course, is also a factor. What is the best marketing strategy for a company that provides software quality assurance services? The Y2K bug, of course. Even Landan's mother, who never understood what he was doing, called him one day after reading an article on the Y2K bug to tell him that she finally understood what he was selling.
Perhaps it's the Y2K bug, perhaps its slowly acquired reputation, or perhaps it's the fact that Mercury practically invented a brand-new market, but Mercury is currently considered one of the most solidly based companies in the field of automatic testing. The company's share is reacting accordingly.
Now that Mercury has reached a company value of almost $3.2 billion, Landan is not only one of the richest men in Israel, but also one of the company leaders with the capital he needs to do what his exalted status requires: to grow through mergers and acquisitions. Mercury this week announced the acquisition of Israeli company Conduct, two months after its intention to do so became known. Both the contact between the companies and the acquisition idea came about almost by chance, through an unofficial talk with the company owners. Landan, however, did what Wall Street expects from him: he bought, using his company's strong share. One gets the impression that this purchase is only the beginning.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 16, 1999