A big seller, BMC is back as a small buyer

Contact: Brenon Daly

As the mammoth $6.9bn take-private of BMC Software nears its close, the IT systems management giant has finally turned from seller to buyer. After almost a year out of the M&A market as it was hammering out the deal with its private equity (PE) backers, BMC has returned as an acquirer, with two small purchases in the past week. (The pending LBO, which stands as the second-largest PE deal since the end of the recent recession, is still tracking to a close either this month or next.)

BMC was previously in the market last September, but now has reportedly acquired a small social collaboration startup in India and formally announced the pickup of Vancouver-based Partnerpedia. In the four years leading up to the take-private, BMC averaged about four acquisitions annually.

Of the two August deals, the addition of the roughly 70-person Partnerpedia is the more significant transaction. As my colleague Chris Hazelton described the pairing: By purchasing Partnerpedia, BMC is able to provide a centralized app store for most major computing platforms – desktop, cloud and mobile. See our full report.

For more real-time information on tech M&A, follow us on Twitter @451TechMnA.