Computer Associates is spinning off its open-source
Ingres database technology to a private equity firm, which wants to
widely promote the platform.
Equity firm Garnett & Helfrich Capital has bought the
database technology for an undisclosed sum. CA released Ingres as
an open source project in 2004, which gave the database a marketing
boost.
The sale is seen by CA as part of an ongoing streamlining of its
product offerings, many of them acquired through acquisition.
Ingres was subsumed by CA through the 1994 buyout of
Ask/Ingres.
Despite the sale, CA will retain a minority stake in the newly
formed Ingres and will take a seat on the company’s board to help
steer technology development and marketing strategies for
Ingres.
Garnett & Helfrich Capital took a controlling stake in
thin-client technology solutions provider Wyse Technology earlier
this year. That company recently announced a new range of
thin-client computing products with Sun Microsystems.
Oracle, IBM and Microsoft are the main database suppliers, and
MySQL is the most prominent open-source database provider.