Citrix Systems, maker of thin client/server software, announced a merger agreement on Monday with ViewSoft, a specialist in software for multi-tier and Web-based application development.
Under the deal, valued at about $US32 million, ViewSoft will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citrix, according to a company statement. The companies hope to complete the transaction before October. Both the Citrix and ViewSoft boards have already approved the deal.
As a result of the merger, Citrix expects to incur a one-time charge to its operations of about $2 million in the quarter ending September 30, 1999.
Citrix plans to use ViewSoft's technology to offer customers -- independent software vendors, corporate developers and systems integrators -- the ability to create Web-based applications that have some of the interactivity and rich features of client/server applications, the company said.
"Citrix will use the proprietary technology to extend the flexibility and cost benefits of server-based computing to Web-enabled and multi-tier applications," including applications based on Microsoft's DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) and its DNA (Distributed interNet Applications) component architectures and Java and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the Citrix statement said.
The move furthers Citrix's Internet strategy. The company started its move to Web-based technology with the development of ALE (Application Launching and Embedding), which enables Windows-based applications to be launched from or embedded into HTML pages.
ViewSoft, which has not released a product, has 22 employees.