Bangkok--Dec 24--Penner-Madison
VERITAS Software To Acquire Precise Software Solutions Enters $11B Market To Deliver Highest Application Performance And Availability At The Lowest Cost
VERITAS Software Corporation (Nasdaq: VRTS), the leading storage software provider, and Precise Software Solutions (Nasdaq: PRSE), the leader in application performance management, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for VERITAS to acquire Precise in a transaction valued at $537 million. Together, VERITAS and Precise will provide a unique solution for IT professionals to run mission critical applications with optimal performance and continuous availability. Industry analysts predict this market opportunity will grow to $11 billion by 2006.
The acquisition of Precise enables VERITAS to ensure that mission-critical applications such as, SAP, Oracle, BEA and Microsoft Exchange run faster and have less downtime, leading to better end-user productivity and higher return on investment. VERITAS keeps applications running in the face of hardware and software failure. Precise continuously monitors and analyzes all components of the application infrastructure - web servers, application servers, databases and storage - allowing customers to proactively identify and correct problems before they affect application response times.
"Precise Software Solutions is a strategic acquisition for our business," said Gary Bloom, chairman, president and CEO of VERITAS Software. "Together VERITAS and Precise solve an unequalled range of customer problems, from performance issues to hardware or software failures to site outages. It's an end-to-end solution that only VERITAS can provide."
"The combination of Precise and VERITAS represents an exciting opportunity for our shareholders, customers, partners and employees," said Shimon Alon, CEO of Precise Software Solutions. "VERITAS' scale and global distribution will accelerate the market penetration of our industry leading application performance management solutions."
With 20 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, Precise is a leader in application performance management. In addition, Precise also provides a leading Windows SRM solution, delivering the capability to manage storage capacity and performance for application service level agreements. This capability complements VERITAS' existing SRM offering.
VERITAS also announced today (see related press release) the acquisition of Jareva Technologies, a privately held company that has quickly established itself as a technology and market leader in server automation.
Key Financial Details
The acquisition is valued at $16.50 per share of Precise stock, for a total consideration of approximately $537 million. Taking into account Precise's current cash position, the enterprise value is approximately $400 million. Depending upon the elections made by Precise shareholders, the consideration may comprise up to 25% VERITAS stock, with the remainder being paid in cash. Based on a fixed exchange ratio of 0.2365, a maximum of approximately 7.5 million shares could be issued to the shareholders of Precise. This transaction is expected to close in Q2, subject to Precise Software's shareholder approval and regulatory approvals. Upon closing, VERITAS expects this transaction will initially have a neutral impact on its financials and will be accretive within 12 months.
About VERITAS Software
With revenues of $1.5 billion in 2001, VERITAS Software ranks among the top 10 software companies in the world. VERITAS Software is the world's leading storage software company, providing data protection, storage management, high availability and disaster recovery software to 86 percent of the Fortune 500. VERITAS Software's corporate headquarters is located at 350 Ellis Street, Mountain View, CA, 94043, tel: 650-527-8000, fax: 650-527-8050, e-mail:
[email protected], Web site: www.veritas.com.
About Precise Software Solutions
Precise Software Solutions (Nasdaq: PRSE) headquartered in Westwood, MA, delivers Precise i3 , a comprehensive solution for Application Performance Management that focuses directly on the end-user experience and delivers a rapid return on technology investments. By continuously monitoring and analyzing all vital components of the application infrastructure, "from URL to SQL and Beyond(tm)", Precise i3 proactively detects and corrects the root causes of performance degradation before they affect response times. Precise i3 identifies trends and deviations from the norm, delivering the right balance of performance optimization and strategic business planning.
Nearly 6,000 leading enterprises worldwide, including 80% of the Fortune 100, are using Precise's solutions to help maximize their technology investments and meet their business goals. Precise has offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Far East and Pacific Rim, as well as a global network of resellers and distributors. More information on Precise is available at www.precise.com.
Press Contacts:
Aileen Tang, VERITAS Software
(65) 6233 5905,
[email protected]
Sirikorn Silapa-Archa, Penner-Madison & Co. Ltd.
0.2711.6891-9,
[email protected] End.
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