Micro Focus International, a provider of enterprise application and management solutions, announced that it is making two new acquisitions in the software development and testing sectors.
Micro Focus announced it has reached agreement to acquire Borland Software Corporation, a vendor in the application lifecycle management market. Borland's solutions include application testing/automated software quality (ASQ), requirements management, software change management (and source code management), project portfolio management and model driven development.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Micro Focus will pay approximately $75 million for Borland. The acquisition is being unanimously recommended by the boards of both Micro Focus and Borland and is expected to complete in late calendar Q2 or early Q3 2009.
Additionally, Micro Focus says it has also reached agreement to acquire the suite of application testing/automated software quality (ASQ) solutions and all related sales, support and development infrastructure (together being the "Compuware Testing and ASQ Business"), from Compuware Corporation for $80 million.
Compuware's Testing and ASQ Business automates quality processes within the software development function to control, measure and manage the delivery of results and to ensure process consistency and continuous improvement through sophisticated workflow capabilities. The Directors of Compuware have unanimously approved the terms of the acquisition, which is subject to U.S. antitrust approvals and customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close before the end of June 2009.
In announcing the purchases, Micro Focus explains that it has been evaluating acquisition opportunities in logically adjacent markets as part of its original strategy review in 2006 to broaden its addressable market and create new engines "to drive significant and sustained future organic growth" through the extension of its product portfolio. As part of this process, Micro Focus has identified the $2 billion global application testing/ASQ market as particularly attractive. Micro Focus already operates in this market with its Data Express product. The acquisition of Borland as well as Compuware's Testing and ASQ Business is an opportunity to establish a significant presence in this "fragmented market which fits closely with Micro Focus' existing modernization and assessment offering," according to Micro Focus.
For more on Borland, go here. For more on Compuware, go here. For more on Micro Focus, go here.