Micro Focus Acquires COBOL-IT

Latest Acquisition Strengthens Commitment and Investment in Core Business; Adds Open Source COBOL Solution Option to Portfolio

- Consistent with Micro Focus' M&A strategy driven by investments to extend and grow core product lines.

- Adds differentiated, commercially supported open source offering to Micro Focus COBOL portfolio, complementing array of enterprise, license-based COBOL solutions.

- First acquisition following merger of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's former Software business unit with Micro Focus.

NEWBURY, United Kingdom, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO; NYSE: MFGP) today announced the acquisition of COBOL-IT, a strategic vendor of open-source COBOL solutions. It is the first technology acquisition made following the completion of the September 2017 merger of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's former Software business unit with Micro Focus.

COBOL applications remain business-critical for both enterprise customers and government entities, and range in complexity. Organizations with less complex, but highly critical applications have increasingly been embracing commercially-supported open source solutions to meet their specific requirements.

"We are excited to welcome COBOL-IT to our broad portfolio and the many customers who have embraced these open source solutions to support their core applications," said Chris Hsu, CEO, Micro Focus.

Paris-based COBOL-IT was founded in 2008 to help organizations preserve the functionality of strategic COBOL applications with superior performance and agility. It is the first COBOL vendor to develop and deliver an open source-based COBOL compiler and run time environment, enabling enterprises to run compiled objects in all Open Systems Unix, Linux, and Windows platforms.

"Joining Micro Focus gives COBOL-IT customers and partners a richer enterprise technology ecosystem context that can enable long-term success and support," said Stephane Croce, founder and CEO of COBOL-IT. "With significant intellectual property and deep domain expertise, Micro Focus has extensive experience supporting and extending business-critical COBOL applications, and we anticipate that this will present additional value to both our customers and partners going forward."

"COBOL-IT adds a unique and exciting dimension to our COBOL product portfolio, and enables us to offer technology support that fully spans the evolving needs of customers as they extend, integrate and modernize their core business applications and data," said Chris Livesey, SVP and GM, Application Modernization and Connectivity at Micro Focus. "I look forward to working with COBOL-IT customers and partners worldwide to determine how we can grow and strengthen their investments together."

About Micro Focus

Micro Focus is a leading global enterprise software company uniquely positioned to help customers extend existing investments while embracing new technologies in a world of Hybrid IT. Providing customers with a world-class portfolio of enterprise-grade scalable solutions with analytics built-in, Micro Focus delivers customer-centered innovation across DevOps, Hybrid IT Management, Security & Data Management, and Predictive Analytics. For more information visit www.microfocus.com. 

Contact:
Bret Fitzgerald Micro Focus
801-550-1745
Bret.Fitzgerald@microfocus.com

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