Compuware to split off mainframe business into new company

Compuware to split off mainframe business into new company

Compuware Corp. announced today that it plans to separate its mainframe support business into a separate company operating under the Compuware name.

Chris O’Malley will be the president of the new company. The splitting off of the company from its parent corporation is pending the closing of the sale of the IT services and support company to Thoma Bravo LLC, a San Francisco-based private-equity company.

The $2.5 billion deal to buy the company and take it private was announced Sept. 2. The deal requires approval by shareholders and federal regulators and is expected to close by the end of the year, according to company President and CEO Bob Paul.

Mary McCarthy, public relations manager for Compuware mainframe’s business, said it is too early to say how many of Compuware’s more than 3,000 employees worldwide or the 830 in the downtown Detroit headquarters will join the new company.

Paul first told Crain’s in May that he wanted to split Compuware (Nasdaq: CPWR) into two businesses – the high-margin but shrinking mainframe business and the low-margin but fast growing application performance management business, a cloud-based way to allow companies to monitor their various IT functions in real time.

On Tuesday, Compuware announced it will operate the APM business under the name Dynatrace.

Compuware entered that market in 2005 with the acquisition of Massachusetts-based Adlex Inc. and has continued to acquire companies in that space since then, including buying Massachusetts-based dynaTrace Software Inc. in 2011.

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