Dell Wraps Up Quest Acquisition

$2.4 billion acquisition of Quest Software

Dell's announcement Friday morning, coming just three days after Quest shareholders approved the deal, instantly makes the computer manufacturer a major player in the market for IT systems management software.

"The close of the Quest acquisition is a tremendous milestone in Dell's journey to strengthen our end-to-end IT capabilities, empowering our customers to unlock greater value in their Dell technology investments, as well as their overall IT environments," said John Swainson, president of the Dell Software Group, in a statement.

[Related: Dell Quietly Intros Public Cloud Storage, Stays Silent On Channel's Role ]

"We are addressing key needs for our customers, helping them leverage the cloud, support 'bring-your-own-device' in their enterprise, and deploy mobile applications and virtualization to drive improved business results," Swainson said. "The addition of Quest Software into Dell's software portfolio will extend our industry-leading suite of solutions to a broader range of customers and partners, while simplifying operations, maximizing workforce productivity and delivering faster results."

Dell announced the deal to acquire Quest on July 2, following several weeks of unconfirmed reports that the two companies were negotiating an acquisition.

The acquisition provides Dell with a broad portfolio of application and server management, security, backup and recovery, and software development tools. Quest's technologies will be a cornerstone of the Dell Software Group, launched earlier this year and managed by ex-CA CEO Swainson. Dell expects the group to be a $1 billion-plus annual business.

Dell has made a number of other significant acquisitions this year to add to its software product portfolio, including security technology vendor SonicWall and desktop virtualization software developer Wyse.

Dell said the Quest acquisition brings more than 100,000 customers, 5,000 channel partners, 1,500 software sales and marketing experts, and 1,300 software developers to the Dell Software Group.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 28, 2012