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Thursday, February 14, 2008

Macrovision Sells InstallShield to TCB

As I recently posted, it's proving to be an Interesting Year Of Change:

Macrovision has agreed to sell it's software business unit including FlexNet and InstallShield brands to Thoma Cressey Bravo (TCB) for $200 Million USD.

Interestingly the company that I currently work for ( Manatron ) was also recently sold to TCB.

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Macrovision Corp., the media technology company that is trying to buy GemStar-TV Guide, said Thursday it agreed to sell its software business to an affiliate of private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo for about $200 million.

The move comes as Macrovision, which makes software to prevent unauthorized copying and viewing of video, music and other content, tries to convince shareholders to approve its $2.8 billion purchase of GemStar's interactive television listings.

The business for sale includes Macrovision's Flexnet and InstallShield security products. The company did not say how much revenue the unit delivered in 2007.

Thoma Cressey plans to operate the business as a stand-alone company and keep Mark Bishof on board to run it. Bishof is currently executive vice president and general manager of the software business unit at Macrovision.

The company expects the deal to close by April 1, pending antitrust approvals.

3 comments:

  1. Macrovision has a huge install base but also an old and cracked technology. The new owner will have to compete with young and dynamic companies with promising technology like http://www.byteshield.net/ and others.

    Oren Gabay

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  2. Well, I wonder if this change will be good for those of us using InstallShield.

    It would be an interesting blog to write up things that people think should change about InstallShield.

    I for one think the UI needs a major overhaul so that when switching interfaces that the look and feel is consistent.

    Drag and drop / Copy and Paste between open projects needs to work.

    And since we use Collaboration - fix the dang thing :)

    ReplyDelete