Qualix Group Inc is looking to go public in 1997 now that it has bought its way into the Windows NT market with the acquisition of Octopus Technologies Inc yesterday. San Mateo, California-based Qualix, which sells high-availability failover and recovery software, reckons it can woo potential share purchasers by showing it’s more than a Unix house. Yardley, Pennsylvania-based Octopus, with a work force of 20, has an installed base of 4,000 for its fault tolerance and data protection software. It also has remote disk mirroring software, an area in which Qualix has been admittedly weak. Octopus will retain its name, headquarters and management and become a division of Qualix. The two firms expect to integrate their products in the future, but wouldn’t give details. No financial details were released. Qualix said it considered filing an initial public offering last spring when companies were diving into the NASDAQ waters left and right, and said yesterday, it could make sense pretty soon. For those who’ve never heard of little Octopus, it’s been whispered that they provide the NT fault tolerance systems for the NT-maker itself, Microsoft Corp; reportedly Bill Gates has been spied wearing an Octopus baseball hat. And we thought he was a Sonics fan.
