Micro Focus and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have also announced their plans to enter into a commercial partnership with SUSE, naming the German-based open-source software company as Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s preferred Linux partner.
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The .8 billion deal in which Hewlett Packard Enterprise is spinning out its software division and merging it with Micro Focus will create a new entity in the software development world and make Micro Focus a force to be reckoned with.
HPE is one of the two companies that were created from the breakup of Hewlett-Packard Co last November – one focused on PCs and Printers and the other on corporate hardware, software and services. “Once the ES-CSC and Software-Micro Focus transactions are complete, HPE will be a faster-growing, higher-margin and stronger free cash flow company, well positioned for the future”, said Whitman.
Micro Focus, based in Newbury, England, can use the assets to bolster its software products that help customers on a variety of fronts, including business applications, security and with data centers.
Wall Street was looking for first quarter non-GAAP earnings of 45 cents a share on revenue of at least $12.64 billion.
Separately HPE reported better-than-expected earnings in its fiscal third quarter ended July 31.
The company on Wednesday said that it is to get a US$2.5 billion cash payment and its shareholders are to hold a 50.1 percent stake in the new combined company.
Customers of both HPE and Micro Focus will benefit from the move, Lewis said, through accelerated delivery, increased agility and lower costs.
The deal would bring an end to HP’s ill-fated 2011 acquisition of British software maker Autonomy Corp for $11 billion in 2011. And the Software segment being spun off includs Autonomy, the big data software company that HP acquired for $10.3 billion, of which HP later wrote off $8.8 billion, coincidentally enough.
Micro Focus shares surged as much as 23%.
The announcement is the latest in a string of acquisitions that has catapulted Micro Focus into the FTSE-100 index.
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“Our newly created software-defined and cloud business will build upon key software assets like OneView and the Helion cloud platform to deliver software-defined and hybrid IT solutions like Synergy, HPE’s composable infrastructure”, she said.
