Q&A: Rocket Software's Purchase of TigerLogic's D3

On October 16th, 2013, TigerLogic Corp announced the sale of its MultiValue-based databases software to Rocket Software. The purchase of the MultiValue product line from Tigerlogic Corp generated a series of questions in the community.

We had a Q&A with Susie Siegesmund (Vice President and General Manager at Rocket Software) about the purchase that International Spectrum wanted to share with the MultiValue Community:

Spectrum: What products did Rocket Software purchase from TigerLogic Corp?

Susie: The products purchased from TigerLogic Corp are D3, mvBase, mvEnterprise and the connectivity products such as OpenDB, MVS Toolkit, .NET and JAVA API's, etc. In short, all of the MultiValue business of TigerLogic Corp.

Spectrum: Is the TigerLogic XDMS going to be included in the purchase?

Susie: No. That product remains with TigerLogic Corp.

Spectrum: Are any of the Rapid Application Development tools such as Omnis included?

Susie: No — these products remain with TigerLogic Corp, as they are part of their future strategic product offerings.

Spectrum: Is D3/mvBase/mvEnterprise going to be placed under the Rocket U2 heading, or will it be a separate division?

Susie: The Rocket D3 product family will be a separate product family, managed by me as Rocket Vice President and General Manager, with its own P&L. It will not become part of the Rocket U2 business.

Spectrum: What will Rocket software call this new division?

Susie: The new division will be called Rocket D3, which will include all the products included in the purchase.

Spectrum: What personnel can we expect to move from TigerLogic Corp to Rocket D3 division?

Susie: The team that has developed, supported and sold these products is joining Rocket to continue in these roles. John Bramley will be the Business Area Executive for the D3 Lab, and Janet Cioffi-Kennedy will be the Business Area Executive for the D3 Channel.

Spectrum: What will the management structure look like?

Susie: I will also head this new business unit. John Bramley and Janet Cioffi-Kennedy will report directly to me.

Customers and partners will continue to have the same relationship they currently have with sales, development, and support teams.

Spectrum: Has there been a long term plan for combining tools for cross database access? For example, UniObjects, U2 Web DE, BDT, Flashconnect, etc.

Susie: There has been no long-term plan, as the acquisition is just completed. We will be doing a technical deep-dive to determine what Rocket products can be integrated with the D3 databases, including CorVu, Aldon, NetCure as well as the U2 Tools products.

Spectrum: What is the short term plans for the D3 product line?

Susie: We intend to grow this business. To accomplish this we will bring new features to the D3 databases in order to enable our partners and end user customers to meet their future technology needs. We will focus in areas of the greatest need. From the few conversations I've had to date with D3 customers, we will likely focus on business intelligence and mobile access in the short term.

Spectrum: Will the development, support, and engineering departments stay in Irvine, or will the personnel be consolidated in Denver?

Susie: The Rocket D3 team will remain in Irvine, California.

Spectrum: What do you see as the advantages of this purchase?

Susie: Rocket has grown the U2 Business since acquiring it four years ago. We intend to grow the D3 business. We have domain expertise in MultiValue technology and can offer other enterprise technologies to this customer base. With a stronger position in this market, Rocket will promote MultiValue technology and seek to encourage its use by new developers.

Spectrum: Who started the dialog for the D3 purchase?

Susie: TigerLogic Corp decided to divest their MultiValue business and, as a publicly traded company, sold it on the open market. There were other bidders besides Rocket Software interested in acquiring this business.

Spectrum: What is the expected timeline for the consolidation of people and assets? When do you think the merging of personnel , offices, etc would be complete?

Susie: November 18, 2013 was day one for our new Rocket employees. We have already provided them with new computers, new phones, and email addresses, and staged a Rocketized website as an interim to moving this content into the main rocketsoftware.com. The transition of all the employees joining the Rocket D3 devision has taken place prior to November 18th.

Spectrum: Is there is anything else you would like to include?

Susie: Rocket Software acquires businesses with characteristics we know well and works to grow them, investing in new product features in order to deliver outstanding results for our customers, partners, and employees. I am looking forward to working with my new Rocket D3 team and with all the loyal D3 customers to achieve this goal.

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Nov/Dec 2013