Borland Buys Java Performance Solutions Provider

Borland Software Corp. is boosting Java developer productivity and performance with an acquisition and an integration agreement.

The Scotts Valley, Calif., software development toolmaker announced Tuesday that it has acquired Redline Software Corp., a San Jose, Calif., Java performance solutions provider, in a three-part deal.

Borland said its acquisition of Redline Software, also known as VMGear, consists of a deal that involves a $2 million payment at closing; $6 million in retention payments over three years; and additional payments over another three-year period contingent on the sale of Redline Software products and the retention of certain employees, the companies said.

The key asset Borland gains in the acquisition is VMGears OptimizeIt Suite, a suite of performance optimizing and testing solutions for Java developers.

Borland officials said the company would talk about the deal Thursday, when the company holds its earnings conference call.

Borland President and CEO Dale Fuller said in a statement that his companys acquisition of VMGear followed product announcements in November that focused on driving Java into the mainstream of enterprise development.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Serena Software Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., said it has integrated its Serena ChangeMan DS product to work with Borlands JBuilder Java development environment. JBuilder is based on J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition).

ChangeMan DS is a software change manager for distributed systems. By integrating the two companies products, Serena will enable geographically dispersed Java development teams to coordinate changes and deliver scalable Enterprise JavaBeans-based components across the enterprise, the company said.

"J2EE application development requires a powerful solution that can simplify distributed change management and speed the deployment of mission-critical applications," said Tony de la Lama, vice president and general manager for Java solutions at Borland.