back to article Micro Focus spends $540m to add Serena its software brand museum

Micro Focus International is splashing out $540m to scoop up Serena Software – or more specifically, its recurring maintenance revenues, to add to its stable of once great, now slightly dusty software brands. LSE-listed mainframe specialist Micro Focus is simultaneously raising $216m in a placing to help pay for the deal, …

  1. Anonymous Blowhard

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it; but keep paying maintenance in case it does break...

  2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "once great, now slightly dusty software brands....high EBITDA margins, with consistently strong cash generation"

    A good business model once you get over the notion that you've got to grow and grow and grow.... And more rational because at some point the market's saturated and there's no more growth to be had.

  3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Borland... haven't heard that name for a while...

    1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      > Borland... haven't heard that name for a while...

      Was it on the ropes for a while before that?

      Bet 365 seem to think it has a future in the same old same old:

      Find a bunch of fools and take their money equates to find a selection of non participants and and accrue their overspill.

      How far back does being able to track your emails go?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Give it another 20 years

    And they will be buying the Redmond Remnants for small change so that they can add COBOL to Visual Studio and port IE6 onto the mainframe.

    It's sort of sad to see these old names like Big Blue and the Redmond Remnants slowly disintegrate.

    But you can't fight Karma: what you sow is what you reap (in the end).

    So keep an eye open for peak Google.

    1. NomNomNom

      Re: Give it another 20 years

      Cobol has already been added to visual studio. COBOL can even be compiled to managed code.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Give it another 20 years

        Cobol has already been added to visual studio. COBOL can even be compiled to managed code.

        Yep. And there's JVM managed COBOL with Eclipse integration. (Visual Studio and Eclipse can also be used for native-code COBOL, of course. Though my favorite IDE remains bash + vim + make.)

        The new streamlined syntax for managed OO COBOL is pretty nice, too. Now that I can finally create closures using anonymous delegates in COBOL I can get some real work done.

      2. Not That Andrew

        Re: Give it another 20 years

        Ahh yes, I remember having a slight beakdown upon hearing of the existence of COBOL.net 6 or so years ago.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The St Albans office

    Was home to Intersolv UK when I worked there as an SCM Consultant peddling the PVCS suite of tools.

    1. BarneyT

      Re: The St Albans office

      I too was surprised that the previous Microfocus to Intersolv\Merant\Serena relationship did not get a mention.

  6. Howard Hanek
    Boffin

    The Lords of Cobol

    Guiding those humans of the Twelve Colonies to a mythical place called Earth.....or something. The Cylons probably called their programming language Cobol which may account for why they never succeeded in destroying mankind.

  7. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Frankfurt stock exchange was looking for COBOL programmers last year. Plenty of legacy systems still out there.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like