Micro Focus's Purchase Of Relativity Strengthens Its APM And Modernization Offerings

Micro Focus's acquisition of rival Relativity Technologies for $9.7 million is expected to close in early 2009. What does the acquisition mean to applications professionals? It will have several key positive results, including: the combined company will offer much broader programming language coverage, which will reduce customers' need to buy application mining and application portfolio management (APM) tools from multiple vendors; Micro Focus will strengthen its relationship with services and sourcing vendors that Relativity successfully leveraged as a sales channel; and Relativity's "solution-sales" capabilities will meld with Micro Focus's predominantly product-oriented sales approach. All in all, Forrester believes that the acquisition will have a net positive impact on Micro Focus's revenues and its application modernization and APM offerings.