Summary & History

Summary of Micro Focus International plc

Micro Focus is a leading provider of legacy development and deployment software with nearly 30 years of expertise and well in excess of one million licensed users. Micro Focus' software is used by over 70 companies within the 2004 Fortune "Global 100". Micro Focus' innovative software enables its customers to continue to use and extract value from investments in existing information technology infrastructure (i.e., "legacy" assets), including people and processes. By exploiting the latest technologies and leveraging the strength of its partners worldwide, Micro Focus' software enable its customers to improve the productivity of application developers, take advantage of web services and migrate existing applications from older platforms, such as the mainframe, to contemporary platforms, such as Windows. As a result, Micro Focus' customers are able to reduce the cost of their information technology operations and improve the flexibility of their businesses, while managing the risks associated with legacy development and deployment.

History

The Micro Focus business traces its origins back to 1976. Micro Focus Group plc, founded in 1983, had its ordinary shares listed on the London Stock Exchange and American Depositary Receipts quoted on NASDAQ. In 1998, Micro Focus Group plc purchased Intersolv, Inc., a US company, in a share-for share exchange offer. The combined entity was named MERANT, which maintained a listing on the London Stock Exchange and quotation on NASDAQ until such time as it was acquired by Serena Software Inc. in 2004. In August 2001, following a strategic decision by MERANT to refocus its business, MERANT sold the operations that form the current Company to a newly formed and independent company owned by Golden Gate. Since that sale, Micro Focus has refocused its business on its core competency of legacy development and deployment.