Borland picks up Visigenic for $150 million

Software tools supplier Borland has pulled off a coup in the fast emerging object messaging market through the $150 million acquisition of Visigenic.

Visigenic develops and markets VisiBroker, an object request broker based on the Object Management Group's Corba specification. Its technology has been licensed by many firms, including Oracle, Netscape and Sybase, making Visigenic one of the most sought after companies in this sector.

Borland chief executive officer Delbert Yocam said that the purchase of Visigenic was intended to further Borland's goal of becoming an enterprise-level supplier. Object request broker technology can be used to integrate legacy, client-server and object-oriented applications.

Visigenic founder Roger Sippl will become Borland's chief technology officer following the take-over. Current chief technology officer Rick LeFaivre will become head of research and development.

Visigenic shareholders will be able to pick up 0.8 shares of Borland stock for each outstanding share of Visigenic.

About 12.5 million Borlan shares, worth $150 million at today's value, will be issued at the close of the deal in the first quarter of next year.

Yocam hoped the deal will help restore Borland's financial fortunes.

The software company returned a small profit of $1.5 million in its quarter ended 30 September.

One investor said: 'Visigenic is a company which never made a penny before. Borland needs to pay $150 million for a company with revenue of less than $20 million, which also lost more than $10 million each year. Why?'