Progress Software made a strategic move to gain wider
recognition in the infrastructure software market with its
acquisition of integration specialist Iona this week.
In a deal representing total equity value of approximately $82m,
Boston-based Progress says that it will now be able to offer a
truly heterogeneous
service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure.
Progress' push for heterogeneity to widen SOA take-up comes at a
time when some analysts are still debating
the purported benefits of
SOA and many vendors are still at pains to improve SOA project
execution to
increase its adoption.
Speaking to ComputerWeekly.com, director of technology for EMEA
at Progress Software Giles Nelson said, "Our acquisition of Iona
will significantly increase the scope of our SOA product portfolio.
Iona has high-quality customers, particularly in the financial
services and telecommunications sectors including Credit Suisse and
AT&T, who have relied on Iona's services for mission-critical
business decisions."
Nelson also stated that SOA should be about an
independent, heterogeneous choice. The company says that
bringing Iona's web standards based integration technologies to the
table will further increase implementation of SOA.
According to Iona, for the last 15 years it has been a major
player in
Corba
integration technology, a well-established integration standard
currently relied upon in mission-critical IT systems by some of the
world's largest companies.
Upon completion of the transaction, which is expected to occur
in September pending regulatory approval in the US and Iona
shareholder approval, IONA would become an indirect wholly owned
subsidiary of Progress Software.