BMC Software, a business software publisher, said Monday that it will acquire Israel's New Dimension Software for about US$650 million in cash.
Under the agreement, BMC (BMCS) will pay $52.50 For each share of New Dimension (DDDDF), which also makes business management software.
The acquisition gives BMC a sizable presence in Israel, the location of New Dimension's headquarters and a center for software development. BMC said it also plans to expand New Dimension's operations in Israel.
The purchase comes just as BMC is completing its acquisition of Boole & Babbage, a transaction that's expected to close 30 March. With the purchases, BMC will have about 5,000 employees in 26 countries.
Monday's proposed purchase was well received on Wall Street. Following the news, BMC's stock rose 6.7 percent to $40.75 in mid-morning trading while New Dimension was up 5 percent at $51.38.
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Tunes from Redmond: In a bid to make Windows a platform for digital-content distribution, Microsoft invested about $15 million in Reciprocal, a company that makes technology to securely distribute copyrighted music, video, and text over the Internet.
Microsoft (MSFT) said it will start to incorporate content-protection technology in future versions of Windows and other software.
The companies said there will be a huge market in content protection for text, music, images, and video, delivered through the Internet, DVD, and CD-ROMs.
The market for online music delivery in particular has exploded in recent months. Driven by the popularity of MP3, compressed digital music files that can be downloaded from Web sites. While the technology is wildly popular, it alarms the $12 billion recording industry because it makes possible widespread illegal distribution of copyrighted music.
A number of companies, most recently including IBM, have begun to promote strategies for promoting online music distribution while protecting copyrights. Microsoft's investment in Reciprocal appears to follow suit. The move comes just days after Microsoft unveiled its comprehensive strategy for promoting and profiting from e-commerce.
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Net through Chinese TV: Bill Gates this weeks plans to unveil a project to get hundreds of millions of Chinese television viewers onto the Internet, Microsoft officials said on Monday.
Gates is expected to introduce a project to develop specially equipped televisions and video compact-disc players to tap into the Web during a visit to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Wednesday.
While millions of Chinese have television sets, relatively few have personal computers. So Microsoft may rack up sales quicker by concentrating on set-top boxes and products based on its Windows CE software.
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VCs calling: Nth Dimension, the publisher of wireless-phone shopping guide Wireless Dimension, said it has raised an additional $8 million in funding from investors. It also lined up a spot Go2Net, one of the bigger shopping portals.
The investors in this round of financing include Minneapolis-based Oak Investment Partners, with supporting investments from IDG Ventures of San Francisco and Seattle-based Kirlan Venture Capital.
Wireless Dimension will use the money to expand its services and get its brand better-known.
Reuters contributed to this report.
