Micro Focus to buy Borland in acquisition spree

07 May 2009

Micro Focus International is on its way to becoming an application management powerhouse with two acquisitions announced yesterday, aimed at beefing up its range of software quality assurance tools.

In all-cash deals, it has agreed to buy Borland Software, a developer of application lifecycle management tools, for $75 million, and in a separate deal has also agreed to buy Compuware's application testing and automated software quality business unit for $80 million.

The Borland acquisition is expected to close either late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter, while the Compuware deal will be completed by the end of the second quarter, according to a company statement. 

Micro Focus is based in Newbury, UK, with US headquarters in Mountain View, California. Once known primarily as a supplier of Cobol development tools, it has been aggressively expanding its product line-up in application testing and application quality management. The company has made five other acquisitions since late 2006 in those technology areas.

The sale of Borland ends a long run for that company, which was a pioneer in the early days of the personal computer boom. Founded in 1983 and led by its flamboyant chief executive officer Philippe Kahn, Borland ranked alongside Lotus, WordPerfect and other early PC software vendors with its Quattro Pro Spreadsheet and Paradox desktop database software.

Borland has since undergone a number of transitions since its heyday, focusing on development tools earlier this decade and more on ALM software in recent years. However, today it is a shadow of its former self.