Mercury Interactive Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise testing and performance management solutions, has acquired Freshwater Software, a privately held company based in Boulder, Colorado. Freshwater Software develops and markets global monitoring products and services used by system administrators in organisations to gauge application performance and availability.
[VIDEO]Under terms of the merger agreement, Mercury Interactive paid $147 million in cash for all of Freshwater Software`s outstanding capital stock. In addition, Mercury Interactive assumed Freshwater Software`s stock option plan. The merger is expected to be accounted for as a purchase transaction.
Over the past five years, Freshwater Software has developed a suite of e-business monitoring and management growth solutions. Its focus on network and systems performance monitoring, combined with a strong commitment to customer service, has led to the company`s more than 3 000 domestic and international customers. Its technology is easy-to-use and deploy, and can be downloaded directly from the Web.
"We respect what Freshwater Software has been able to accomplish as a company," says Graeme Allcock, sales director for Mercury Interactive in South Africa. "The company has transformed itself from a tiny start-up into a rapidly growing, nationally recognised software provider with Fortune 500 customers.
"Both Freshwater Software and Mercury Interactive focus on delivering superior business value and service to our customers," continues Allcock. "We see a great synergy between our companies and a natural fit to our software solutions."
The acquisition complements Mercury Interactive`s application performance management solutions that are used by IT organisations to monitor, identify and diagnose application performance problems. Mercury Interactive customers gain a real-time data centre perspective, including the ability to monitor network and system level services such as LDAP, DNS and e-mail. In turn, Freshwater Software customers gain a business-centric view of application performance and availability that can be used to quickly diagnose problems across an entire infrastructure. The companies plan to develop a fully integrated solution using Mercury Interactive and Freshwater Software products that will allow IT and operations groups to benefit from a combined view of application performance data, enabling them to collaborate and effectively deliver superior e-business performance.
Freshwater Software will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary under Mercury Interactive`s Application Performance Management (APM) business unit. Four of the five co-founders are expected to remain with the company as will some current employees. Donna Auguste, the current president and CEO of Freshwater Software, will leave the company after a short transition period to pursue philanthropic interests.
"I am delighted that Mercury Interactive is going to continue what we started," says Auguste. "Mercury Interactive is an ideal company to join with from a technical, financial and management perspective. It will allow Freshwater to continue to serve our customer base well while taking our business to the next level."
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