CA To Acquire Concord Communications

The $350 million deal, announced Thursday, includes $20 million in Concord debt, which will be shouldered by Islandia, N.Y.-based CA. The agreement, pending regulatory approval, is expected to close in about 90 days, said CA CFO Jeff Clarke.

The prize for CA is Concord's eHealth, network performance management and predictive capacity planning technology. Clarke said it was too early to discuss details about the integration of CA's and Concord's technologies or specify which partners would be able to sell the resulting products.

"This strategic combination significantly advances CA's position in the high-growth network and systems management marketplace and, with the integration of our Unicenter solutions, will extend CA's overall leadership in systems management," CA President and CEO John Swainson said in a statement.

Plans call for CA to integrate Concord's operations into its Enterprise Systems Management Business Unit, one of five new divisions that CA formed this week under a restructuring of business operations. The Enterprise Systems Management unit is the home of CA's flagship Unicenter product and is run by former Novell executive Alan Nugent.

Concord Chairman, President and CEO Jack Blaeser said the company's North American sales are about 90 percent direct and 10 percent indirect, with European sales just the opposite.

CA said it expects the "vast majority" of Concord's 640 employees will remain with the company after the acquisition is completed.