The Irvine, California-based the application, database, and Windows management specialist believes the purchase of privately held Vintela will enhance its Microsoft Active Directory deployment, management, and integration strategy.
We see the Vintela products as a key piece in our long-term strategy to extend the Microsoft platform, said Vinny Smith, Quest chairman and CEO. We’re enabling customers to use Active Directory to extend into Unix, Linux, Java, Mac, mainframes, and so forth.
Quest is already a strong systems management partner with Microsoft, and the relationship is likely to be strengthened through the purchase of Lindon, Utah-based Vintela, which has also become a key partner for the software giant thanks to its cross-platform approach.
Microsoft took a minority financial interest in Vintela in November 2004, reportedly for less than $10m, and Smith revealed that Microsoft had encouraged Quest to get closer to Vintela before that investment was made. Microsoft encouraged us to partner with or even acquire Vintela prior to them making the investment, then went ahead and made the investment, he said.
Vintela’s products include Vintela Authentication Services for cross-platform authentication using Active Directory, Vintela Single Sign-on for Java, Vintela Group Policy for Unix and Linux, and the Vintela Management Extensions the extend Microsoft’s Systems Management Server to Unix, Linux, and Mac OSX systems.
The company expects the deal to close at the end of the second quarter or beginning of the third. Quest’s chief financial officer, Michael Lambert, said Vintela is on track to generate revenue of between $12m and $12.5m in 2005, but the acquisition is expected to dilute Quest’s 2005 pro forma earnings per share by $0.02.
Quest has been on something of a shopping spree in recent months. In March it acquired Microsoft Exchange migration software vendor Wingra Technologies for an undisclosed fee before snapping up SQL Server database management tools vendor Imceda Software Inc for $61m in April.
