Blow to Optimal VARs

Optimal Networks resellers have been left in the lurch after the application performance management vendor fell into the hands of Compuware on Friday.

Optimal Networks resellers have been left in the lurch after the application performance management vendor fell into the hands of Compuware on Friday.

The European operations of Optimal have been closed down and resellers calling the company in California were referred by an answering machine message to Compuware.

Paul Spencer, managing director of Optimal VAR Axial Systems, said: "Normally companies are bought as an ongoing concern, but this is just an acquisition of product. The driving force behind this is that Optimal had just run out of money."

Spencer claimed that when he called Compuware on Friday, nobody at the company knew anything about the acquisition.

David Redden, managing director of reseller IMS, said discussions with Compuware about continuing a relationship beyond the existing Optimal reseller contract have so far been favourable. "I have many customers to supply and products to support, so I hope to carry on dealing with them," he said.

A Compuware representative confirmed that the vendor has traditionally used a direct sales model, and said a statement about the takeover will be issued later this week.

Spencer said: "This is an acute problem for Axial, because we have always placed a lot of value on post-sales support."

He added that many Optimal customers have bought annual software maintenance contracts, which may now prove worthless. "I suspect we are not going to see any more product updates. This is a very awkward situation we're in," he said.

Optimal had been trying to move into services and had been negotiating to pass its product development over to Network Associates, but talks broke down some months ago, said Spencer.

Adrian Woolhouse, managing director of reseller Network Alliance, said although the company would be interested in keeping on Optimal, its turnover would not be greatly affected if Compuware decided to take the product direct.

Financial details of the Optimal acquisition have not been released, but Spencer said he had heard the business was picked up by the US company for "an embarrassingly small sum".