Thursday, February 16, 2012

PowerSteering bought by Texas firm, merged with Canada’s Tenrox

By Rodney Brown

(Updated 1:07 to remove the statement of the company being valued at $1.3 billion. -Ed.)

Cambridge-based PowerSteering Software Inc. has been acquired by Texas investment firm Silverback Enterprise Group, and merged with another Silverback acquisition, Tenrox Inc. of Montreal, to create a new company in the project and portfolio management (PPM) software space.

Silverback noted in a release Wednesday that the combined entity will be called PowerSteering Software and it described it as the “largest pure-play cloud PPM provider.”  Jack McDonald, founder of Silverback, is also now chairman and CEO of the new PowerSteering Software. According to the release, both Steve Sharp, current CEO of PowerSteering Software, and Rudolf Melik, founder and CEO of Tenrox, will stay on with the new company as “key members of the management and advisory teams,” although their exact roles or the duration of their relationship with the new PowerSteering were not disclosed.

Financial details of the purchases were not disclosed, but the release did note that the new PowerSteering will continue to invest in the development and support of both Tenrox and PowerSteering product lines, and all existing Service Level Agreements and support arrangements will remain unchanged.

PowerSteering Software brings to the merged company such customers as BayCare, Johnson Controls, Merck, PolyOne, Shaw Industries, UK National Health Service, US Department of Defense, and others. Tenrox counts as customers IBM, General Electric, US Army, The Pentagon, ConocoPhillips, Hydro Quebec, Alcatel Lucent, Estee Lauder, E*TRADE Financial Corp. and others. Privately held PowerSteering raised $2 million in venture debt as part of a $3.5 million in April 2008.