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Dynatrace and Keynote are Borging into a super-APM outfit

Private equity family merger targets specific biz bods

Six months after being split from Compuware by private equity surgeons, Dynatrace is working to get under the noses of devs in suits.

Dynatrace is today expected to announce it’s merged with Keynote Systems, a specialist in application performance monitoring.

While Dynatrace also provides application performance management tools, the difference is who the companies target.

Keynote’s tools are for those commissioning apps from the business side of the house – those who demand a slicker, more Salesforce-like UI. Keynote resides in a sable of firms owned by the private equity outfit Thoma Bravo that bought Compuware for $2.5bn in September 2014 and split out Dynatrace in December three months later.

Dynatrace CEO John van Siclen told The Reg that the merger would help it tap the growing trend of “digitisation” of business – where development is being commissioned and orchestrated from the front office and line-of-business side of firms.

The company hopes to go up against IBM’s Tealeaf, bought by Big Blue in 2012, and Adobe’s Omniture – bought by the graphics, tools and runtime firm in 2009. However, there is pressure in this market from others: Compuware’s re-born rival BMC, in addition to cloud start ups such as New Relic.

Keynote chief commercial officer and executive vice president Howard Wilson will run the merged outfit's cloud-based services.

Van Siclen said there’s been a strong focus during the last 18 months on driving Dynatrace’s products towards the business buyer and promised more. He promised a Dynatrace release in the next few weeks that would be a “breakthrough” for business buyers.

Also coming are more cloud-based services. According to van Siclen, Dynatrace already has an $80m software-as-a-service business, with Keynote coming up fast behind in the same area with a $75m SaaS practice. Both companies’ platforms will be merged around a single browser agent, script recorder, database and multi-tenant system, van Siclen added.

He reckoned existing customers would not be left behind by the changes: “We have expertise in the views for the technology audience and Keynote has views in the business audience – we will take the best of both worlds.”

Since being swallowed by private equity and spun out, Dynatrace claims $450m in revenue with 7,500 customers. Keynote brings Dynatrace 1,800 customers. ®

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