App Store Maker Partnerpedia Acquired by BMC Software

BMC Software | BCBusiness
BMC Software closed its acquisition of Partnerpedia on July 19.

Vancouver-based Partnerpedia announced Tuesday that it had been acquired for an undisclosed sum

Enterprise software giant BMC Software acquired Vancouver’s Partnerpedia in a deal that closed last month, according to an announcement made Tuesday. 

Founded in 1996, Partnerpedia develops enterprise app store and marketplace products for large enterprise customers including Microsoft, Cisco and BlackBerry. Terms of the deal, which closed in July, have not been released.

The acquisition is part of BMC’s push to capitalize on the consumerization of IT trend by developing products that take the best of what’s happening in the consumer tech world, mainly easy-to-use and visually appealing products, and apply it in enterprise IT, according to Partnerpedia CTO and founder Geoff Mair.

Partnerpedia’s AppZone platform, which gives IT departments the ability to make volume purchases of applications from sources such as Apple’s iTunes store and them push them into a private, proprietary catalog for corporate use, will be integrated into BMC’s MyIT software offering, according to comments Mair made to InfoWorld.

The company’s 54 employees will continue on in B.C., says Mair, who expects his local team to grow as BMC develops its new app marketplace products out of the Vancouver office. 

Prior to the acquisition, Partnerpedia was privately held by a group of angel investors led by company director Haig Farris, and employees including Mair. Vancouver private equity firm Yaletown Venture Partners also held a stake prior to BMC’s buyout, which it acquired in July 2009 for an undisclosed sum. 

Partnerpedia’s new parent company, BMC Software, is also in the process of being acquired. A conglomerate headed by Bain Capital is privatizing the Houston-based company for $6.9 billion.