- Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is reportedly looking into multiple options for Compuware, which would value the mainframe DevOps company at about $2 billion
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is reportedly looking into multiple options for Compuware Corp., according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg’s sources said that these options would potentially value the mainframe DevOps company at about $2 billion, including debt. Compuware has tens of thousands of customers around the world, including Walmart and CVS.
Thoma Bravo has been working with a financial adviser on the sales process. Bloomberg’s sources asked not to be identified since the talks are private. A final decision has not been made and Thoma Bravo may still decide to keep the company.
Back in 2014, Thoma Bravo took Compuware private in a deal that was valued at $2.5 billion. From there, Thoma Bravo separated Compuware’s application performance management unit and renamed it Dynatrace. Dynatrace went public last year and now it has a market capitalization of about $8.8 billion.
Compuware was originally founded in 1973 by Peter Karmanos Jr., Thomas Thewes, and Allen Cutting. And the company moved from the suburbs to downtown Detroit in 2003. Since then, the company spun off several businesses and fought off a hostile takeover by Elliott Management in December 2012. Two years later, Compuware sold its 1 million square foot building for $142 million to Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and several other investors. In a recent interview with Crain’s, O’Malley credited having the Compuware team on one floor in Detroit as one of the major reasons for the company’s growth.
Recently, Compuware acquired the assets of INNOVATION Data Processing — which was the first independent software vendor to develop a mainframe storage and backup product. Compuware CEO Christopher O’Malley pointed out that this deal was a natural extension given the company’s mission to modernize every aspect of mainframe software delivery.
