Reflecting a growing and much-anticipated trend in the ASP industry, industry heavyweights Progress Software and Allegrix announced a merger agreement today.
The Progress Company, a business unit of Bedford, Mass.-based Progress Software Corp. , has acquired privately-held Application Infrastructure Provider (AIP) Allegrix, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. Progress will add Allegrix’s hosting, empowerment and education services for ISVs to its ASPen ASP enablement program. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“With this acquisition, Progress extends the original ASPen Program vision of empowering the ISV, to provide the ideal global ASP deployment platform for all packaged application vendors and subscribing end users,” said Dave Ireland, president of the Progress Company. “As with Progress, Allegrix’s emphasis on supporting partners is unique among its competitors. Furthermore Allegrix has been a reliable resource for a growing number of our ASPen member ISVs.”
In addition to providing cross-platform managed hosting services, Allegrix will become the deployment services of the ASPen Program. Chris Clabaugh, Allegrix’s president and CEO, will serve as a vice president of the Progress Company, responsible for deployment, including infrastructure contracts, education and tech support for ISV customers’ applications.
In his new role, Clabaugh will continue to refine the traditional Allegrix offering within the Progress Company as well as extend the ASPen Program. ASPen and Allegrix executives expect both Progress and non-Progress ISVs to benefit from the merged service offerings and resources.
“We built Allegrix on the sole premise that the thousands of existing ISVs and Solutions Providers are absolutely critical to making the ASP model successful. We have clearly demonstrated that the channel-powered ASP model benefits both the ISV partner and the end-user customer,” Clabaugh said. “By combining resources with Progress, we can now make a more significant impact in the marketplace as a whole – with the thousands of Progress ISVs as well as with the tens of thousands of other channel providers.”
The ASPen program provides business planning assistance, strategic partnerships, superior technology and professional services to assist Progress ISVs in rapidly deploying their applications through the ASP model. The ASPen Program consists of over 200 members that have deployed over 100 Web-enabled applications spanning several vertical markets, with more than 70,000 end-user seats globally.
Other ASP consolidation in recent months include between enterprise ASP Agilera’s acquisition of full-service vertical ASP Applicast in February, as well as mergers between former Micron Electronics subsidiary HostPro and web host Interland and Citrix Systems and Sequoia Software in March.
