PeerLogic Inc, the San Francisco-based middleware company, has acquired two companies as part of its efforts to expand into web- enabled business integration tools. The two companies, both acquired under non-disclosed terms, are UniKix Technologies Inc and Lincoln Software Ltd. They are the fourth in a series of acquisitions by Peerlogic, following its purchase of the DIAS object request broker business last year and the i500 directory business earlier this year, both from ICL Plc.
UniKix, originally a spin-off from Groupe Bull SA, was bought by Fisher Technology Group Inc in 1997. It is best known for its clone of IBM Corp’s CICS transaction monitoring software for Unix and NT systems, but over the last few years it has be repositioning itself as a middleware company, offering mainframe users tools to help extend rather than replace legacy systems. Since then it has launched object request broker and JavaBeans product lines. It has its US base in Phoenix, Arizona, and European operations in Paris and Southampton. Peerlogic says it will gain a large group of transaction processing experts and add another major component to its toolset through the acquisition.
Lincoln Software is the reincarnation of computer-aided software engineering company Ipsys Software Plc, which it acquired back in 1995. Lincoln took on three products from Ipsys: Engineer, Toolbuilder and Hood, and then refocused the Engineer line to help mainframe users add web-based front-ends to legacy software. IBM Corp jointly markets and resells Engineer as part of its WebSphere software line. Lincoln, which won one million pounds worth of venture capital backing from 3i in 1998, has claimed its technology is a year ahead of the competition especially where organizations want their IBM CICS and TXseries mainframe transaction systems to interact with web applications. Hood, an object-oriented development environment, is widely used in the European aerospace and defense industries. Lincoln’s personnel, currently based in Macclesfield, will join Peerlogic’s UK operations in nearby Manchester.
Privately-held PeerLogic continues to develop its original messaging technology, Pipes, which it first introduced in 1989.
