British mainframe company Micro Focus has completed its merger with HPE's software business, in the process creating the globe's seventh largest pure-play business software company.
The software assets passed to Micro Focus in a US$8.8 billion deal.
HPE acquired the software assets of the British company Autonomy in 2011 for US$10.3 billion, Mercury Interactive for US$4.5 billion in 2006 and Vertica Systems for US$350 million in 2011.
As it was unclear which of these assets had been sold to Micro Focus or whether all were sold, iTWire sought clarification from the company.
{loadposition sam08}Micro Focus said in response that the software assets ranged across DevOps, IT Operations Management, Cloud, Security, Information Governance, and Veritica (Big Data Analytics).
It said the software assets were not limited to those from Autonomy. There were also a range of solutions including brands such as ArcSight, Atalla, Fortify, Vertica, Voltage, Mercury, etc. that had been integrated into the HPE Software business.
Assets from Mercury Interactive and Vertica Systems were also included, the company said.
After HPE bought Autonomy, it sued the company's chief executive and founder Mike Lynch and chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain, alleging accounting fraud. Months before HPE bought the company, Oracle had turned down a proposal to buy the firm for half the amount that the sale netted.
iTWire also sought clarification as to whether the legal action would become Micro Focus' responsibility. The company did not respond to this query.
Following the completion of the merger, Chris Hsu (right), former chief operating officer of HPE and executive vice-president and general manager of HPE Software, was made the chief executive of Micro Focus.
“Today marks a significant milestone for Micro Focus, and I am honoured to be leading this team,” Hsu said. “We are bringing together a powerful combination of technology and talent uniquely positioned to drive customer-centred innovation at enterprise scale – enabling organisations to maximise the ROI of existing software investments while embracing the new hybrid model for enterprise IT.
“It is our mission to provide a best-in-class portfolio of enterprise-grade scalable software with analytics built in, and put customers at the centre of our innovation building high-quality products that our teams can be proud of.
“Driven by this mission, Micro Focus is uniquely positioned to help customers and partners address opportunities and challenges within the new hybrid model for enterprise IT – from mainframe to mobile to cloud.”