News
Compuware To Acquire Gomez
In a move that will extend the reach beyond its core focus of enterprise testing and performance management, Compuware Corp. said it will acquire Gomez Inc. for $295 million.
Gomez is a leading provider of Web and mobile application performance management services. Among its customers are Amazon, Facebook, Google, Expedia, Monster and Yahoo. By combining with Gomez, Compuware is seeking to help enterprises not only test and monitor their internal apps but track the performance of applications beyond the firewall.
"With the combined offering we think we have changed the game in the application performance space," said Compuware president and COO Bob Paul, speaking on a conference call announcing the deal. " The buying decisions of a lot of our customers are starting to move toward a consolidated view, one environment, one source of truth to be able to identify and resolve IT problems as it relates to the application and actually understanding the value impact of those performance issues back in to the organization."
With Gomez in the fold, a bank could help determine why customers may be having trouble checking their balances from their mobile phones, Paul said. While Compuware's software tracks applications and systems behind the firewall, Gomez monitors content delivery networks, ISP, telecommunications and mobile service providers. "The combined solution is compelling," he said.
Several analysts who follow the companies agreed. "The product sets compliment each other well," said IDC analyst Melinda Ballou. "What they currently have is in the emerging market for testing as a service and for cloud testing, which is something we expect to be growing dynamically over next several years."
Jim Frey, research director at Enterprise Management Associates, said enterprises require a more holistic view of performance metrics. "It makes a lot of sense for Compuware because they have done a tremendous job behind the firewall and inside the enterprise architecture, but the Internet and mobile links have always been a blind spot and Gomez does a great job at filling that in," Frey said.
Compuware competes with BMC, CA, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and it wouldn't be surprising to see those vendors to follow Compuware's lead, analysts said. Gomez largest rival, Keynote Systems, could be an attractive target. Also look for vendors to extend their efforts by adding new cloud-based services. IBM this week for example launched its Smart Business Storage Cloud, a private cloud offering that will offer testing services.
"One would expect, that the leading software quality testing vendors will be going into this market with SasS offerings," Ballou said.
The deal is slated to close in the fourth quarter.
About the Author
Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond magazine and also covers cloud computing for Virtualization Review's Cloud Report. In addition, he writes the Channeling the Cloud column for Redmond Channel Partner. Follow him on Twitter @JeffreySchwartz.