CA to Acquire Platinum Technology
In what's being called "the largest transaction in the history of the software industry," Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates International Inc. has entered into a merger agreement to acquire PLATINUM Technology International Inc. (Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.), according to published reports.
CA is expected to fund the merger -- which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies -- through a $4.5 billion credit facility underwritten entirely by Credit Suisse First Boston, which will replace CA's existing $2.6 billion lines of credit.
"This transaction provides tremendous synergies in products, markets and services with very little overlap, creating exciting growth opportunities for CA in many new and emerging markets," says Sanjay Kumar, CA's president and COO. "PLATINUM's leadership in knowledge management, data warehouse, database tools and application lifecycle management perfectly complements the e-commerce management and development technologies embodied in Jasmine, CA's object-oriented database. By enabling organizations to easily create knowledge portals, CA will become the premier end-to-end solutions provider for building and deploying enterprise applications."
"In addition," Kumar continues, "many organizations around the world are already enjoying the benefits of the integration between PLATINUM's best-of-breed point solutions and CA's flagship Unicenter TNG's management framework. "We look forward to building a collectively stronger enterprise that can provide a broader range of solutions to clients, greater opportunities for employees from both companies, and accelerated near and long-term shareholder return."
PLATINUM's strength is its software products and consulting services that help companies manage and improve their IT infrastructures-including systems and database management, e-commerce, application infrastructure management, data warehousing, knowledge management, decision support, and Year 2000 reengineering.
"PLATINUM, its management and employees are extremely proud of the world-class organization we have built over the past 12 years," says Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, president and CEO of PLATINUM. "We have strived hard to service our customers, provide great opportunities for our employees, and deliver superior returns to our shareholders. As we approach the new millennium, it is increasingly apparent that consolidations in our industry make it evident that this change is critical to PLATINUM's future."
--L. Greenemeier