By Stephen Phillips
Applications and network management software vendor, Quest Software Inc, said yesterday it had agreed a stock-based deal, valued at about $83.4m to acquire Foglight Software Inc to add e-commerce monitoring software to its product range.
The deal is a platform for Irvine, California-based Quest to bid for more business with e-commerce and online service providers using Foglight’s so-called Real-time Application Performance System (RAPS), officials told ComputerWire. Cisco Systems Inc, eBay Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc already use Pleasanton, California-based Foglight’s system.
RAPS uses Java-based software agents to scan web servers, networks, middleware and individual applications, within e- business environments, for problems. Collected data is analyzed by a rules-based engine on the RAPS server, which transmits alerts to system managers in the event of a problem. Quest said the system supports Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system and multiple Unix platforms.
RAPS will slot into Quest’s Production Support products suite, which currently comprises monitoring, problem correlation and capacity planning software for applications, middleware and networks. Foglight’s software complements our offerings and gives e-commerce companies more compelling reasons to run Quest’s products, Mike Coffman, director of monitoring products at Quest, told ComputerWire.
Quest will issue 1.3 million of it shares to shareholders of privately-owned, Foglight, under the deal. The estimate of its value is based on Quest’s share price of $64.12 at close of trading on Wednesday, before the deal was announced. The transaction is expected to complete next month. á
