Opsware To Acquire Tangram For $10 Million

Data-center automation vendor Opsware announced Thursday that it will acquire publicly traded Tangram Enterprise Solutions in an all-stock transaction valued at $10 million.

The move will enable Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Opsware to add asset-management capabilities to pre-existing management services, and should broaden the vendor's current solutions in the Linux and Unix spaces.

The transaction also will bring a new level of security to Opsware products. With its highly publicized Asset Insight and Enterprise Insight products, Tangram technology enhances overall security by relying on encryption to prevent unauthorized access to business-critical systems, according to the companies.

Opsware President and CEO Ben Horowitz said the deal adds more than 200 customers to the Opsware roster, including Marriott, Molex, Prudential, UBS and Unocal.

"Tangram products allow us to offer unprecedented visibility into assets under management and increased system and application security," Horowitz said in a statement. "This acquisition extends our automation software to desktops and other IT infrastructure."

At Cary, N.C.-based Tangram, officials were equally enthusiastic.

"Tangram's technology is an ideal fit with Opsware," said Norm Phelps, Tangram's president and CEO. "Data-center automation is a natural progression for our customers who today use our products to track assets and reduce IT management costs."

Solution providers also appreciated the new capabilities. At Entessa, a Plano, Texas-based VAR that specializes in Opsware solutions, Vice President of Client Services Steve Lapekas said he was "thrilled" to hear that the vendor had acquired new capabilities and customers.

"There are great opportunities in the market space for automation now," he said. "Tangram's technology will be a key component in solidifying the Opsware product, and including it is part of a natural evolution in the product space that gives Opsware a quantum leap in the space."

The transaction was expected to close in the first quarter of 2004. Opsware, which originally was founded as Loudcloud by former Netscape executive Marc Andreessen, declined to say when, if ever, the company would integrate Tangram products with its own.