Monday, March 17, 2008

BladeLogic to be bought for $800M

BladeLogic Inc. reports agreeing to be acquired by a Houston company for $800 million.

Lexington-based BladeLogic (Nasdaq: BLOG), which develops datacenter automation products, has signed an agreement with BMC Software Inc. for $28 per share of BladeLogic common stock in cash, or about $800 million, company officials said.

In July 2007, BladeLogic completed an initial public offering of 5 million shares of common stock at $17 per share.

The deal is expected to be completed within 90 days, BladeLogic CEO Dev Ittycheria said.

Ittycheria said he plans to be a BMC senior executive after the deal is completed and continue to grow BMC's service automation division, of which BladeLogic will be the dominant unit. Consequently, he expects the division to retain its BladeLogic employees and increase its worker headcount.

"This is really acquiring a business and a business is people, more than just acquiring code," Ittycheria said.

BMC already employs about 600 workers in Waltham and Ittycheria said the addition of BladeLogic will give BMC "a very big presence in the (Route) 128 corridor."

He said it's too early to determine how the merged company's products will be branded.

BladeLogic, co-founded in 2001 by Ittycheria, has yet to reach profitability. During 2007, the company reported a $170,000 net loss on revenue of $62.6 million.

BladeLogic raised $29 million in venture capital during four funding rounds since being launched. Investors include MK Capital of Illinois, Battery Ventures of Waltham, Bessemer Venture Partners of Wellesley, and Globespan Capital Partners of Boston.

Ittycheria was named a Mass High Tech All Star in 2007.

During 2007, BMC Software acquired ProactiveNet Inc., RealOps and Emprisa Networks. Last year, BMC posted profits of $215.9 million on revenue of $1.58 billion.