BMC Software Completes Privatisation Move

BMC Software has finally ended its privatisation process, after it announced its successful acquisition by a private investor group.

The group, collectively known as the Investor Group, is led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital together with Insight Venture Partners, GIC Special Investments and Elliott Management.

Deal Completed

BMC, a longtime maker of software automation and integration solutions, initially revealed its plans to take the company private back in May.

Under the terms of the agreement announced on 6 May, 2013, affiliates of the Investor Group said they would acquire all outstanding BMC common stock for $46.25 (£29.42) per share in cash, or approximately $6.9 billion (£4.4bn). The agreement was approved by unanimous vote of those directors present.

“This is an exciting day for BMC Software, including our employees, our partners and our new owners,” said Bob Beauchamp, BMC’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. “Most importantly, this transaction is very good news for our customers. As a private company, we will be able to innovate more quickly than ever before and deliver the most valuable IT management solutions in the industry.”

“BMC is the leading global provider of cloud, mainframe and mobile IT management solutions to enterprises across the globe,” said Ian Loring, managing director at Bain Capital, in a statement. “Working together, we will deliver innovative new IT management solutions that transform the way companies – and their employees – do business.”

As a result of the completion of the transaction, BMC Software common stock will no longer be listed for trading on NASDAQ, effective as of the close of trading on 10 September.

Market Retreat

“I believe the company’s privatisation can be considered in a similar light to what’s happening at Dell,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. “Like Dell, BMC is in the process of a significant transition. Going private should allow the company’s management to successfully pursue rethinking, reorganising and realigning BMC without second-guessing by investors or analysts.”

In a statement from May, Beauchamp said, “BMC believes the opportunity to become a private company will provide additional flexibility and position us to invest more strategically to drive powerful innovation and deliver cutting-edge customer solutions. We look forward to working closely with all parties to complete this transaction and enter into our next chapter of growth and industry leadership.”

Headquartered in Houston, BMC develops, markets and sells software used for multiple functions, including IT service management, data centre automation, performance management, virtualisation life cycle management and cloud computing management. The name “BMC” is taken from the surnames of its three founders – Scott Boulette, John Moores and Dan Cloer. BMC Software began as a mainframe software vendor, but since the middle 1990s has been developing software to monitor, manage and automate distributed and mainframe systems.

“BMC is the only enterprise software vendor that can go from mainframe to mobile, with solutions that help IT drive real business innovation and optimise operations management and employee productivity,” Loring said in a statement back in May. “We and the rest of the Investor Group look forward to working with the management team and employees of BMC to execute additional growth strategies designed to expand the company’s capabilities and enhance its relationships with customers and partners around the world.”

How well do you know the cloud? Take our quiz!

Originally published on eWeek.