SunGard delays rebranding decision

SunGard, the financial software and business continuity provider, has delayed the rebranding of its risk management software arm.

Front and Infinity have emerged as the favourite new names for the business, but concerns about intellectual property rights are hindering the process.

The software arm's new name was expected to be announced this week, with a source at the company saying Front had been chosen. A spokesman for SunGard in London, however, denied this was the case, saying the launch of the brand has been delayed by several weeks.

Although the company already uses both Front and Infinity brands for two of its risk management and trading programmes, and also owns the website addresses www.infinity.com and www.front.com, intellectual property concerns abound. Infiniti, for instance, is the brand used by Nissan Motors for its luxury lines.

SunGard announced the planned division of its software and processing group, which includes the trading and risk systems business, from the availability services group in October last year, with the latter retaining the SunGard name and brand.