Actian and Pervasive Software merge to create a disruptive force in big data

Actian Corp. (Actian), an innovator in next-generation big data management and creator of the innovative record-breaking analytic database Vectorwise, and Pervasive Software (NASDAQ: PVSW), a global leader in cloud-based and on-premise data innovation, today announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Actian will acquire all of Pervasive's outstanding shares for $9.20 per share.

The deal values Pervasive at $161.9 million and accelerates Actian's ability to deliver its vision of providing organisations with the capability to take action in real time as their business environments change.

"Big data is an opportunity and a challenge for organisations in every industry, with potentially valuable, business-critical insight locked away in inaccessible and indecipherable systems. This makes data management and insight today's big question for businesses looking at how to unlock the substantial incremental business value in their big data," said Steve Shine, CEO and president of Actian Corporation. "This transaction combines the proven ability of both companies to out-innovate and out-perform the industry giants, allowing us to deliver the promise of big data to every organisation.

"There is a lot of industry discussion around the big data challenge. This debate essentially boils down to how organisations extract business value from data in a way that is powerful, yet simple," Shine continued. "We want to give customers the tools to get to the data, find those nuggets of insight, and act on it immediately. Would an e-tailer benefit from knowing the social preferences of those in his online store or from real-time alerts from a price comparison site for items in stock? The Actian and Pervasive merger allows us to bring this and countless other data-driven benefits to the market in a way that enables every business to create compelling business outcomes from the promise of big data."

Actian and Pervasive provide complex data management solutions to tens of thousands of mission-critical deployments around the globe. This merger gives all customers access to a larger portfolio of products, and provides joint partners greater opportunity to offer new solutions in adjacent markets. The combined company together will drive a vision to help all organisations extract greater competitive value from their data.

Over the past few years, both companies have independently demonstrated their ability to innovate to provide highly differentiated solutions in the data management market. Actian's Vectorwise currently holds multiple records for performance and is fast becoming the analytic platform of choice for digital companies around the world. This, combined with Pervasive Big Data and Analytics software, will enable organisations to take advantage of Hadoop-era clusters for rapid insights on large data sets. Pervasive's Data Rush and Data Cloud products have also been critically acclaimed by the industry.

"Together, the combined group has the technology and global presence to deliver the ability to extract, analyse and take action on big data in real time. Every organisation can now act on real insights to take action on big data," concluded Shine.

Actian's exclusive financial advisor was Evercore Partners and its legal counsel was Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Financing for this transaction will be provided by TPG Lending Company.

* Gartner Group Oct 2012