Software testing company NuMega Technologies Inc is going to be snapped up by Compuware Corp, a company which already derives over 65% of its revenues from the software testing market. NuMega, a Nashua, New Hampshire-based company which made its name with the well-known BoundsChecker error detection tool, has concentrated on the C, C++, Delphi and Visual Basic markets, although it has more recently been turning its attention towards Java testing. It is a privately held company with around 100 people in the US and the UK, which had been aiming for revenues of $20m this year and considering an initial public offering (CI No 3,209). It claims 100,000 users worldwide. Farmington Hill, Michegan-based Compuserve says it has a definitive agreement to acquire NuMega, and will issue 3.3 million shares of its common stock to the shareholders of NuMega, while current NuMega option holders will become holders of approximately 900,000 Compuware options. NuMega will remain in New Hampshire and become Compuware’s fourth development lab, leading the firm’s development of Windows NT-based testing tools. NuMega technology will be integrated with Compuware’s Uniface fourth generation language tool and with its existing Fault-XPERT, Xpediter and QACenter software testing tools and EcoSystems systems management products. In 1996 Compuware acquired two small software testing houses, Direct Technology Inc and DRD Promark Inc, during a year which saw the merger of Pure Software Inc with Atria Software Corp and Rational Software Corp’s acquisition of SQA Inc for $320m. Compuware claims it wants to buy and grow its way into the top five software companies worldwide.
