Computer Associates International Inc., on the heels of completing its Concord Communications Inc. acquisition, announced its plan to acquire project portfolio management provider Niku for about $350 million on Thursday.
The Niku acquisition is expected to bring a greater level of control over the direction of Nikus Clarity IT-MG suite of IT governance software, which CA early this year had begun to resell.
The acquisition is intended to extend CAs ability to map IT infrastructure to business requirements into mapping people and projects to business requirements, according to Jacob Lamm, senior vice president and general manager of CAs new Business Service Optimization unit.
“Niku has a rich portfolio of management and business visualization and analysis tools. We want to combine that [with CAs infrastructure-to-business mapping capabilities] so the CIO can say heres the project cost for this CRM application—what are the infrastructure requirements and cost, the network and machines required—and map those to the business service. Today those are in two parallel universes,” said Lamm.
The Redwood City, Calif., companys Clarity IT-MG suite provides end-to-end project and portfolio management, ranging from investment selection and execution to delivery of initiatives and results assessment.
The acquisition, expected to close within three to four months, marks yet another consolidation milestone in the market.
IBM acquired rival Systemcorp, Compuware Inc. acquired Changepoint, and Mercury Interactive acquired Kintana. It also competes with the privately held Primavera.
Once completed, Niku will become a part of CAs new Business Service Optimization organization, announced in April in CAs recent reorganization.
Niku CEO Josh Pickus will remain with the unit reporting to Lamm.
Although CA had evaluated other potential partners when it struck its OEM partnership with Niku in January, Niku was a better fit than others because of its vision and its focus on IT services.
“If you want to build a bridge, you buy Primavera. If you want to manage an IT department, you buy Niku,” said Pickus.
“This is not a fill-a-gap acquisition. This will extend how we in the industry define systems management and portfolio management and make that a natural extension,” added Lamm.
No layoffs are planned for Niku, which has 290 employees, and the Niku headquarters in Redwood City will remain in place. Niku last year generated $66 million in revenue.
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