SEATTLE, June, 2005 — An investment group led by Golden Gate Capital, Francisco Partners and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Attachmate Corp., of Bellevue, Wash. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Over the next 60-90 days, Attachmate will merge with WRQ, Inc. of Seattle. The same investor group acquired WRQ in December 2004. The combined company, which will operate under the name AttachmateWRQ, becomes the largest independent provider of software to access and integrate legacy systems.
Jeff Hawn is chairman and CEO of AttachmateWRQ. Hawn’s prior experience includes BMC Software, where he was senior vice president of operations, and McKinsey & Company, where he was a partner.
“With this powerful combination, AttachmateWRQ emerges as the clear leader in universal host access and integration,” said Hawn. “Our customers are the world's largest companies and they continue to rely on their IBM-, HP-, Unisys-, Digital-, and Unix-based systems to run their most important business functions. Now, the best technology for all of these legacy platforms is available from a single provider that is also known for its superior customer support.”
Senior executives of AttachmateWRQ will include Jeff Libby, senior vice president of finance and operations, Bob Flynn, senior vice president of worldwide sales, and Shaun Wolfe, senior vice president of products and marketing.
“The worldwide host access market is a sizeable software revenue opportunity, with revenues over $800 million in 2004. The combined company will be in a stronger position to bring new service-oriented architectures to market as well as leverage key systems and software partnerships,” said Lucinda Borovick, director of Datacenter Networks at IDC. “We expect AttachmateWRQ will also see benefits from its extensive field operations force and solid channel partner relationships.”
“This merger is the latest step in the creation of the world’s next large, successful and growing software company,” said Hawn.
AttachmateWRQ’s products are installed on over 16 million desktops in nearly 60 countries. Products of AttachmateWRQ include DATABridge, e-Vantage, EXTRA!, INFOConnect, KEA!, NetWizard, Reflection, Synapta and Verastream.
About AttachmateWRQ
The world’s largest independent provider of access and integration software for legacy systems, AttachmateWRQ enables organizations to maximize the value of their existing IT investments as they advance their long-term business and IT strategies. More than 40,000 customers representing over 16 million desktops worldwide take advantage of AttachmateWRQ’s quality solutions and deep expertise to help them run their businesses securely, efficiently and competitively. More information about the companies can be found at www.attachmate.com and www.wrq.com.
About Golden Gate Capital
Golden Gate Capital (www.goldengatecap.com) is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with approximately $2.5 billion of capital under management. Golden Gate is dedicated to partnering with world class management teams to invest in change-intensive, growth businesses. They target investments of up to $100 million in situations where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company’s value. The principals of Golden Gate have a long and successful history of investing with management partners across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures and spin-offs, build-ups and venture stage investing.
About Francisco Partners
With $2.5 billion of committed capital, Francisco Partners is one of the world’s largest technology-focused private equity funds. The firm was founded to pursue structured investments in technology companies undergoing strategic, technological, and operational inflection points. Francisco Partners targets majority and minority investments in private companies, public companies, and divisions of public companies, with transaction values ranging from $30 million to $2.0 billion. The principals of Francisco Partners have a proven track record, having invested in excess of $3.0 billion of equity capital in over 50 technology companies. For additional information, visit www.franciscopartners.com.
About Thoma Cressey Equity Partners
Thoma Cressey Equity Partners is a leading private equity investment firm that has been providing equity and strategic support to experienced management teams building growing companies for almost 25 years. The firm originated the concept of “industry consolidation” or “buy & build” investing, which seeks to create value through the strategic use of acquisitions to accelerate business growth. Thoma Cressey’s investment focus is on profitable, middle-market companies in the software, healthcare, business services and consumer products and services industries. The firm provides equity capital for buyouts, MBOs, growth equity investments, and ongoing private transactions. More information about TCEP can be found at www.thomacressey.com.
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Copyright © 2005 WRQ, Inc. All rights reserved. WRQ, the WRQ logo, Reflection, Verastream, and “Access. Integrate. Transform.” are either registered trademarks or trademarks of WRQ, Inc., in the USA and other countries. Some Reflection products include software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org). All other trademarks, trade names, or company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective owners. USA patents pending.
© 2005 Attachmate Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Attachmate and EXTRA! are registered trademarks and the Attachmate logo and Synapta are trademarks of Attachmate Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Voor meer informatie:
Marianne van Barneveld
+31(0)35-5822730 of +31(0)6-53372153
attachmate@marcommit.nl