Dun & Bradstreet sells software firm

Boston-based investment house Bain Capital has agreed to acquire Dun & Bradstreet Software Services for $160 million in cash and $50 million in preferred stock, Bain announced yesterday.

The acquisition follows parent company Dun & Bradstreet's January announcement that it would divest DBS and split into three publicly traded companies: Cognizant Corporation, the "new" D&B Corporation, and AC Nielsen, the market research and analysis company.

DBS will get a new name, as yet unspecified, and will be an independent, privately run company in which Cognizant will retain a 27 percent minority interest. DBS, which specializes in enterprise software applications, has an installed customer base of more than 3,000, according to Bain.

Bain Capital has also invested in the Gartner Group consultancy and software company Stream International. It is run by Milt Romney, who almost unseated Edward Kennedy in the 1994 Massachussetts Senate race.