Merant Completes NetObjects Deal

Merant has completed its $18 million acquisition of the Enterprise Division of NetObjects , an IBM affiliate. With the acquisition, Merant says it is the first company to offer scalable, enterprise-strength, software configuration and Web content management from a single source. The deal was originally announced in early January.

IBM will be making a limited equity investment in Merant on the open market to demonstrate its commitment to the Rockville, Md.-based company. Approximately 35 employees of the Enterprise Division of NetObjects will be relocated to Merant’s existing offices in Mountain View, California.

Merant will immediately rename its product PVCS Web Content Manager, and has promised a new release later this year.

“We have already identified a number of areas where combining the capabilities of PVCS Web Content Manager with our other PVCS products like Version Manager and Dimensions will have tremendous benefits for our customers,” said Andrew Weiss, senior vice president and chief technocal officer of Merant. “As of today, we have finished combining the two teams working on this effort. Everyone is tremendously excited about the possibilities ahead. When the next version of PVCS Web Content Manager is released, it will already show evidence of the benefits of the collaboration, and there is much more to come.”

Merant maintains a Web site at http://www.merant.com.