Just a week after netting its eighth catch, Englewood, California-based Locus Computing Corp (CI No 2,645), and tying the knot with Altai Inc (CI No 2,650), Platinum Technology Inc has been unable to land five-year-old Tel Aviv-based security software house Memco Software Inc with one strike. It has had to take an undisclosed stake and settle for first right of refusal to acquire the remainder of Memco’s business. Until last week, Memco was owned by Israel’s largest bank, Hapoalim, and some private Swiss and Israeli investors. Platinum is to release, and enhance, a version of Memco’s B1 secure SeOS technology announced only a couple of weeks back, as the Platinum Security System. Platinum gets a seat on Memco’s board and perpetual rights to SeOS source code in addition. Platinum claims the software will integrate mainframe, Unix, Distributed Computing Environment and other security systems into an environment that can be administered from a single workstation. SeOS forms part of Platinum’s Open Enterprise Management System POEMS and is being offered from now as SeOS, from Memco or Platinum, at from $30,000. It supports MVS mainframes with RACF, CA-ACF2 or CA-Top Secret; AIX, Solaris and HP-UX. Memco has a US office in New York City. And for those scratching their heads wondering where all the recently-acquired technologies are taking Platinum, the company is set to unfurl a plan to turn the systems management world on its ear next month, with a full-blown integration and product development strategy. Experience tells us it is a story we have heard before from the likes of OpenVision Inc, which went around hoovering up technologies and people a couple of years back before its campaign got bogged down.
