Compuware to Acquire Dolphin Equity Partners Portfolio Company Gomez for $295 Million

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dolphin Equity Partners today announced that Compuware Corporation (NASDAQ:CPWR), the world’s leading application performance management software company, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dolphin portfolio company Gomez Inc., the leader in Web application experience management. The $295 million cash acquisition is expected to close in November 2009.

“We have worked closely with the Gomez senior management team to develop the latest technologies to position the company to dominate the Web application management space.”

Dolphin is Gomez’s largest shareholder and first invested in the company in 2000, when it saw an opportunity to build on Gomez’s nascent Web performance monitoring assets, and has since played a pivotal role in defining the company’s direction. Dolphin President Richard Brekka has been Gomez’s chairman of the board after a stint as interim CEO in 2005, when he led the search to bring in current CEO Jamie Ellertson.

“Dolphin Equity Partners has been instrumental in the success of Gomez,” said Ellertson. “Richard Brekka and the rest of the Dolphin team have been strong advocates of our strategic direction and a valued business partner in helping Gomez achieve its expansion plans. In Richard, we benefited from the hands-on insights of an industry veteran as a close advisor as we built the company and supported our goals to build a world-class management team with a global organization to take advantage of the market opportunity.”

“We recognized that Gomez had a lot of potential and the opportunity to build a transformative and disruptive business as applications moved to the Web,” said Brekka. “We have worked closely with the Gomez senior management team to develop the latest technologies to position the company to dominate the Web application management space.”

With the addition of Gomez — which delivers its offering through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model — to Compuware’s SaaS revenues, Compuware becomes the world’s leading SaaS infrastructure management provider. SaaS continues to become a more desirable way to acquire software due to a lower cost of ownership and faster, easier adoption and maintenance. Headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Gomez employs 272 people around the world. Substantially all of these employees, including the leadership team, are expected to remain with Compuware after the close of the transaction.

The Gomez sale highlights Dolphin’s experience at spotting opportunities that will yield long-term results. With an eye toward the future, the firm has built a deep bench of SaaS experience through portfolio companies like Gomez. The firm also has a track record of successful exits in other markets, including Enpocket (sold to Nokia in 2007) and MaxPreps (sold to CBS in 2007).

For complete details on how the Compuware-Gomez agreement sets the new standard for managing the performance of business applications, see http://bit.ly/KESJN.

Compuware Corporation

Founded in 1973, Compuware provides software, experts and best practices to ensure applications work well and deliver business value. Compuware helps CIOs optimize end-to-end application performance for leading businesses around the world, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies. Learn more at: http://www.compuware.com.

About Gomez

Gomez, Inc. is the leader in Web application experience management, providing an on-demand platform that organizations use to optimize the performance, availability, and quality of their Web and mobile applications. The Gomez platform identifies business-impacting issues by testing and measuring Web applications from the "outside-in" — across all users, browsers, devices, and geographies — using a global network of over 100,000 locations. The self-service Gomez platform integrates Web load testing, Web performance management, cross-browser testing, and Web performance business analysis. Over 2,500 customers worldwide, ranging from small companies to large enterprises — including 12 of the top 20 most visited US Web sites — use Gomez to increase revenue, build brand loyalty, and decrease costs. Learn more at: http://www.gomez.com.

About Dolphin Equity Partners

Dolphin Equity Partners, L.P., founded in 1998, is a leading private equity firm based in New York with over $340 million in capital. Dolphin invests in early and growth-stage technology-enabled companies positioned for continued growth and that present the potential to structurally transform enterprise and industry practices. As a trusted advisor and partner, Dolphin provides strategic and operational guidance to each of its portfolio companies, helping them build transformative and disruptive businesses. The relationships between Dolphin and its management teams are true partnerships providing the support and expertise necessary to build successful and enduring companies. Dolphin invests in Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud computing, mobile-enabled technology, communication services, and new media businesses. Dolphin has been an investor in market-leading companies such as Enpocket (acquired by Nokia), MaxPreps (acquired by CBS), Vitalstream (acquired by Internap), TeraGo (TSX: TGO) and Ceragon (NASDAQ:CRNT). Learn more at: http://www.dolphinequity.com.