Chris, here's the PR
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VERITAS Software Acquires Windward Technologies Inc.
Merger of Companies' Technologies Brings Failure Prediction Solution to Enterprise Customers, Enhances Industry's Most Advanced Storage Resource Management (SRM) Solution
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 1998-- VERITAS(R) Software Corporation (Nasdaq:VRTS - news), the leading provider of end-to-end storage management solutions, today announces that it has completed the acquisition of Windward Technologies Inc. in an agreement whereby all Windward products, technology, research and employees will become part of VERITAS. Both companies' boards of directors have approved the acquisition, which closed last Friday, and brings Windward's unique failure prediction software to the VERITAS family of leading storage management products.
VERITAS will combine the Windward Lookout failure prediction technology with its recently announced Storage Resource Management (SRM) family of products to provide the industry's only storage resource failure prediction technology. This addition will help VERITAS customers achieve continuous availability of their enterprise data by reliably predicting when storage system failures will occur. Predictive failure warnings enable data protection measures to be taken prior to failure.
''VERITAS is committed to delivering the industry's best and most comprehensive storage resource management solutions,'' said Mark Leslie, VERITAS president and CEO, ''Our acquisition of Windward Technologies raises the bar, adding unique predictive failure management capabilities to our already strong SRM solutions including VERITAS Storage Manager and VERITAS Volume Optimizer. The Windward products meet an important need in mission-critical enterprise environments where disk failure causes 55% of downtime and cost companies millions of dollars every year.''
''We have been watching VERITAS drive storage management technology toward uninterrupted data availability with simplified management and optimal storage control. We see natural synergies between the two companies' products and believe that bringing together VERITAS and Windward for improved management of mission-critical data is a natural evolution of technology and a win for our customers,'' said Raymond Drueke, president of Windward Technologies.
The acquisition is a cash transaction that will be accounted for using purchase accounting. Related to this acquisition, during the second quarter, VERITAS will record a one-time charge for in-process research and development of approximately $0.03-$0.04 per share.
Expanding Storage Resource Management to Include Predictive Failure Capabilities
VERITAS will combine the Windward technology with its SRM product family for predictive failure management of storage hardware on heterogeneous platforms including Microsoft Windows NT Server, Sun Solaris, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX and IBM AIX. Through statistical analysis of hardware error messages, the technology will determine when failure is imminent, and warn administrators of impending failure through its own interface, or through industry-standard systems management frameworks including CA Unicenter, Tivoli TME and Hewlett-Packard OpenView. VERITAS plans to deliver products that incorporate the Windward technology in Q4 of this year.
The VERITAS SRM product family is in use in enterprise customer sites worldwide. Anchored by VERITAS Storage Manager, the suite provides a comprehensive view of all storage objects and applications throughout an enterprise. Through VERITAS Storage Manager, administrators can monitor the state of storage components such as databases, file systems, logical and physical volumes, backup software and processes, and highly available clustered servers. For more information about VERITAS products and services or to locate their local VERITAS office, customers can visit www.veritas.com.
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