Micro Focus acquires COBOL-IT

Micro Focus, the global enterprise software company, has announced the acquisition of COBOL-IT, a strategic vendor of open source COBOL solutions based in Paris. It is Micro Focus’s first technology acquisition following the completion of the $8.8 billion merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s former software business unit in September 2017. Applications written in COBOL programming language are used across enterprise customers and government entities, and range in complexity. Organisations with less complex, but highly critical applications have increasingly been embracing commercially-supported open source solutions to meet their specific requirements. “We are excited to welcome COBOL-IT to our broad portfolio and the many customers who have embraced these open source solutions to support their core applications,” said Chris Hsu, CEO, Micro Focus. The acquisition is consistent with Micro Focus’s M&A strategy driven by investments to extend and grow core product lines, the company said. COBOL-IT was founded in 2008 to help organisations preserve the functionality of strategic COBOL applications. Stephane Croce, Founder and CEO of COBOL-IT, said: “Joining Micro Focus gives COBOL-IT customers and partners a richer enterprise technology ecosystem context that can enable long-term success and support. With significant intellectual property and deep domain expertise, Micro Focus has extensive experience supporting and extending business-critical COBOL applications, and we anticipate that this will present additional value to both our customers and partners going forward.” Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.