Borland Finally Sells CodeGear

Software development vendor Borland has rid itself of its CodeGear developer tools division in a sale to Embarcadero Technologies for $23 million.

The deal ends over a year and a half of searching for buyers for the division. The deal is expected to close by June 30.

The sale frees Borland to focus on the application lifecycle management (ALM) market, which aims to improve the efficiency with which software is developed, tested and deployed. Borland spun out the CodeGear division in November of 2006 after failing to find a buyer for Borland’s developer tools products.

CodeGear’s developer tools include the Delphi product lines for Win32 and PHP, as well as the JBuilder Java IDE and the 3rd Rail Ruby on Rails IDE .

Embarcadero markets itself as a vendor of cross platform database tools.
Embarcadero claims that the new combined entity will have revenues of $100 million and 500 employees globally.

In an FAQ about the transaction, Embarcadero noted that the reason for the acquisition is to enable Embarcadero to offer, “a complete product portfolio to design, develop, manage and manage and optimize heterogeneous applications and their databases. ”

Embarcadero noted in the FAQ that there are no immediate plans to discontinue any current CodeGear products.

“However, you can anticipate products will be evaluated to determine optimal development and go-to-market strategies on an ongoing basis consistent with our current practices,” the FAQ states.

Embarcadero itself is a privately held firm backed by private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo.

“CodeGear is a recognized leader with a loyal developer community and established global channels,” said Wayne Williams, CEO of Embarcadero Technologies, in a statement. “By incorporating its strong product portfolio, Embarcadero will be positioned to expand into new markets and develop cutting-edge products that are a quantum leap for the industry.”

A CodeGear spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.