Deals for 10 April: Palm, Red Hat, JBoss, Comverse, Netcentrex, Aperto

Deals announced recently:

Red Hat, Inc., a vendor of open source products to the enterprise, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire JBoss, a vendor of open source middleware.

By acquiring JBoss, Red Hat hopes to accelerate the shift to service-oriented architectures, by enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, open source platform.

Red Hat will acquire JBoss for approximately $350 million in initial consideration, plus approximately $70 million subject to the achievement of certain future performance metrics. The transaction consideration is composed of approximately 40 percent in cash and 60 percent in Red Hat common stock.

The acquisition is expected to be completed around the end of Red Hat's first fiscal quarter (May 2006), subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

Comverse Technology, Inc. has announced that Comverse Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Netcentrex S.A., for approximately $164 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments and a contingent earnout of up to an additional $16 million.

The actual amount of the contingent earnout payment, if any, will be determined based upon achievement of certain financial targets by the Netcentrex business during the remainder of fiscal 2006 and for fiscal 2007.

The combination of Netcentrex, a vendor of network-based software enabling IP-based voice-video-data ("triple-play") and fixed-mobile convergence products for service providers, serving the enterprise and consumer segments, with Comverse's portfolio of value-added multimedia messaging, content and converged billing products, is hoped to benefit operators deploying differentiating, multimedia services in the VoIP and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert)) domains.

The acquisition, which is expected to close by July 1, 2006, is projected to be neutral to the company's fiscal 2006 (year ending January 31, 2007) pro forma net income. Pro forma net income excludes the impact of purchase accounting adjustments related to the write-down of deferred revenue, amortization of intangibles, and other acquisition-related costs, among other items.

Aperto Networks, developer of WiMAX base stations and subscriber units, has announced completion of a Series E follow-on financing round of $26 million, bringing the company's total capitalization to $120 million.

The financing round was led by GunnAllen Venture Partners with significant participation from existing investors including JK&B Capital, Canaan Partners, Alliance Ventures, Innovacom, JAFCO, and Labrador Ventures.

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Wichita Public Schools is standardizing on the wireless Palm TX handheld computer for its seventh-grade technology program, Palm, Inc. announced today. The school district purchased nearly 730 Palm TX handhelds as part of a major renovation of its technology curriculum for middle schools.

These Palm TX handhelds join thousands of other Palm handhelds in use by students, teachers and administrators throughout the school district. The Palm TX features built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies for wireless communications.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.