BMC buys Boole & Babbage

BMC, the utility and systems management software company, is to buy Boole & Babbage in an all-stock transaction worth $900m.

BMC, which has been on the acquisition trail of late, will add Boole & Babbage's enterprise software capabilities to its arsenal, in an attempt to win accounts which are currently the preserve of systems management market leaders, Computer Associates and IBM.

Max Watson, chairman, president and CEO of BMC Software, said the deal will allow BMC to step up its Application Service Assurance strategy, which aims to "improve the availability, performance and recovery of business-critical applications".

Assuming the deal is approved, the combined company will start with combined revenues of $1.1bn for the last 12 months, and a workforce of 4,400.

The deal is expected to be completed in 60-90 days. In mid-morning trading on Nasdaq on Monday, shares in Boole & Babbage jumped 12.7 per cent to $30, while BMC was down 4.3 per cent to $46.