Network Mgmt. Merger Targets E-Business, Win2K

SAN MATEO (02/29/2000) - A trio of network management vendors on Monday agreed to merge in a $2.7 billion deal that will provide e-businesses and users of Windows 2000 and Windows NT with a suite of products to enhance network infrastructure performance and to manage applications on an integrated platform. Network directories also are key to the alliance.

The main players of the deal include Mission Critical Software Inc., which deals in directory management, and NetIQ Corp., which develops application management software. In a separate transaction, Mission Critical has agreed to acquire Ganymede Software Inc., a privately held company that will bring end-to-end network performance management software into the mix.

The new company is expected to provide e-businesses, enterprise customers, and ASPs (application service providers) with a cadre of infrastructure management solutions encompassing administration, directory, and application performance management, said Rick Placzko, vice president of marketing at Mission Critical.

"What you're seeing [via the merger] is one-stop shopping for Windows 2000 and Windows NT management," Placzko said. "The integrated solution on a Microsoft platform will bring an end-to-end view from a customer's perspective, looking at client to server to monitoring where all the performance issues lie."

Placzko said products resulting from the merger should hit the market sometime this spring or summer.

Scott Dennull, a systems management automation manager at Global Processing Services, in Dayton, Ohio, said his company currently uses products from both NetIQ and Mission Critical to monitor its servers worldwide. Integrating the technology of both companies will benefit systems on the network management, enabling the applications to "talk" to each other when problems arise, according to Dennull.

The new company will be based in Santa Clara, Calif. The merger is expected to close in June 2000.

Mission Critical Software, Inc., in Houston, is at www.missioncritical.com.

NetIQ Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., is at www.netiq.com. Ganymede Software Inc., in Morrisville, N.C., is at www.ganymede.com.

Brian Fonseca is an InfoWorld reporter.

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