Pervasive rethinks product line-up

Vendor strikes #6.4 million deal to buy Web software specialist as rivalry in data management market hots up.

Embedded database specialist Pervasive Software has become the latestas rivalry in data management market hots up. vendor to review its product line in light of increasing competition within the data management market.

The company has agreed to a #6.4 million acquisition of EveryWare Development, which makes software used for designing and deploying Web-enabled packages.

Howard Gooder, managing director of Pervasive UK, said the addition of EveryWare's technology would allow the vendor to push its flagship product, Pervasive SQL, to customers working outside of a traditional client/server environment.

At the Gartner Group US Symposium in Florida last week, Bill Gates, chief executive of Microsoft, confirmed that the software giant's SQL server database engine would be integrated with NT 5.

Gooder said the prospect of Microsoft tying in its data management software with its OS was putting additional pressure on rival vendors to broaden their products.

The acquisition will also extend Pervasive's UK channel presence. Full Moon Software Distribution, described by Gooder as 'an old-style value added distributor', which supplies EveryWare's products, will become part of the Pervasive channel.

He added: 'Full Moon's growing network of sales partners includes traditional resellers, consultants, Web designers and ISVs. This is going to boost our profile among UK developers.'

EveryWare's two main products are Tango, a development platform for creating Web applications, and Bolero, a real-time internet decision support system that measures Web traffic.

John Grieve, managing director of Southdown House, which resells Pervasive's products to ISVs and corporate customers, said the buyout reflected the vendor's commitment to the internetworking and mobile computing markets.