Looking to build up its DevOps capabilities, Micro Focus International plans to buy Serena Software in a transaction valued at $540 million.

The acquisition, which is expected to close in May and is subject to approval from competition authorities in the U.S. and Germany, complements Micro Focus’ offerings and will help customers build and deploy high-quality business applications quickly, said Stephen Murdoch, CEO of U.K.-based Micro Focus.

“Today’s announcement marks another significant milestone for Micro Focus, bringing together two highly complementary solution sets that enable customers to build better applications, adapt to changing business conditions more rapidly and maximize the value of existing investments to drive further innovation within their business,” he said in a news release. “With Serena, we are further positioned to deliver richer solutions for the complex business demands customers are solving today—with greater reliability, predictability and less risk of failure.”

Serena, which is based in San Mateo, CA, sells application lifecycle management software and has expertise in application development, software configuration, change management and business process management. The company is considered a pioneer in processes and solutions that allow organizations to take a DevOps approach toward application development—an approach that’s become increasingly important for cloud-based applications because it allows developers to quickly develop, deploy and change applications as the business demands.

Micro Focus is known for its enterprise application modernization offerings. By adding Serena’s offerings to its fold, Micro Focus said customers will be better able to do the following:

• Design and build business applications and services with greater accuracy, reliability and predictability;

• Continuously deploy existing core business applications on a wider variety of platforms to meet changing business needs; and

• Improve the speed and efficiency of new business services through automated release and deployment solutions.

“This is an exciting announcement that promises to offer substantial value to Serena customers and partners,” said Greg Hughes, president and CEO of Serena in a news release. “Our complementary strengths in software development and IT operations will only serve to provide a stronger foundation for the next-generation of applications and services they require to meet ongoing business demands.”

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