Solution Providers Laud BMC's Remedy Acquisition

BMC Software Peregrine Systems

"I think it's very positive. It adds a capability to BMC that it didn't have before," said Steve Lenhardt, client services director at Maryville Technologies, a systems integrator based in St. Louis that works with both BMC and Peregrine's Remedy line. "BMC will be offering more of a one-stop shop than it ever has before," he said.

Customers are pleased that the Remedy product family has found a stable home, said Rick Loose, vice president of Sales at Entuition, a Remedy systems integration and software development partner based in Atlanta.

"This is the first time in six to eight months that it seems like the Remedy portion of the business is on solid ground," Loose said. "Remedy has such a good name and it was tarnished by Peregrine," he said.

Peregrine said Sunday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and inked a deal for BMC to buy its Remedy business and assets for $350 million in cash, including up to $110 million in debtor-in-possession financing from BMC.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

The deal, subject to bankruptcy court and regulatory approval, is expected to close within 45 to 60 days, said BMC executives Monday during a conference call.

Remedy is expected to operate as a separate business unit within BMC. BMC Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Darroll Buytenhuys has been tapped to serve as acting general manager of the unit.

The combination of BMC's performance and availability monitoring software and Remedy's service management software for service desk, change management and asset management will bring BMC closer to providing customers with end-to-end management solutions, said Bob Beauchamp, president and CEO of BMC, Houston.

"What's driving IT spending right now is connecting business to technology, and BMC has always been the component company, the company that could manage widgets. What's been missing from our portfolio, and what [Remedy has, is the other side of it, the process side. Now, putting them together, you really can begin to manage business processes, business services, in a much more complete fashion, in a real holistic approach," Beauchamp said.

Remedy has 6,000 customers, 750 employees and more than 70 solution provider partners. It generated close to $250 million in revenue during the 12-month period that ended June 30.

"BMC will benefit by the fact that Remedy has a great indirect channel that produces approximately one-half of its revenue," said Jeff Hawn, BMC's senior vice president of operations.

In a statement to CRN following the call, BMC described Remedy's strength in the partner and reseller community as "one of the many appealing and compelling factors" of its new acquisition, and said it would know more about partnership opportunities for the combined companies after the deal closes.

One of the challenges BMC faces is regaining the trust of Remedy customers, whose confidence was potentially shaken by Peregrine's financial troubles, said Maryville's Lenhardt.

In April, Peregrine replaced auditors Arthur Andersen with KPMG and delayed the release of its fiscal fourth quarter earnings results.

The company then announced the resignations of two top executives, found as much as $100 million in accounting irregularities dating back to fiscal 2000 and became the subject of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Peregrine Sunday said it plans to file a $1 billion lawsuit against Arthur Andersen and other defendants, accusing the firm of negligence, fraud and breach of audit and accounting duties and responsibilities.