Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Compuware buys dynaTrace for $256 million

By Galen Moore

Compuware Corp. (Nasdaq: CPWR) announced this morning it has acquired dynaTrace Software Inc., a privately held company based in Waltham, for $256 million in cash.

Substantially all dynaTrace’s 180 employees worldwide are expected to remain with Compuware, the company said in a news release. DynaTrace makes application performance monitoring and diagnostic software.

According to the release from Detroit-based Compuware, dynaTrace has trailing 12-month revenues of $26 million. The acquisition will boost Compuware’s fiscal 2012 revenues by $35 million to $45 million, the company said - and it is expected to add nearly $100 million to the top line by fiscal 2013.

Venture capital investors in dynaTrace include Bain Capital Ventures of Boston, and California-based Bay Partners. The company has raised at least $22 million, including a $4 million round closed in January.  Among its customers are Zappos.com and Thomson Reuters, according to the dynaTrace website.

Compuware’s last major Boston-area acquisition took place in 2009 - a $295 million cash deal for Gomez Inc., which also makes application performance monitoring software. Lexington-based Gomez had been in an IPO holding pattern since filing papers for a public stock offering in May of 2008.