Micro Focus Plc shares may be so close to the stratosphere that they can’t go much higher, but the details of the company’s new agreement with IBM Corp can’t do them any harm, and the deal is rather more comprehensive and potentially beneficial to the Newbury Cobollers than had previously been indicated. Now that it is to become an AD/Cycle Business Partner, the companies will jointly market the Micro Focus Cobol/2 Workbench family of products for OS/2 and PC-DOS, but, more important, Micro Focus Cobol is designated as IBM’s Systems Application Architecture Cobol for workstations. Micro Focus products are now available from IBM branch offices across the US – and customers can still get Micro Focus direct support and service, and similar marketing relationships will be created worldwide. The agreement means that Micro Focus and IBM can share information and cross license technologies, ensuring that new releases will remain aligned with IBM’s AD/Cycle framework and Systems Application Architecture standards. The Micro Focus Cobol/2 Workbench with compiler and development tools is designed for creating and maintaining applications targeted to run on workstations under OS/2 or MS-DOS as well as on host computers under MVS, VM, or DOS/VSE. The Micro Focus Cobol/2 compiler is replacing IBM Cobol/2, which was licensed by Micro Focus to IBM in 1987 as IBM’s Cobol for OS/2 and PC-DOS. The list of products IBM will be taking comprises Cobol/2 Workbench, Cobol/2, CICS OS/2 Option for the Workbench, CICS Option, IMS Option, and 370 Assembler.
