HGGC Capital, private equity firm, will take over the long turnaround of enterprise software developer Serena Software. The private equity firm has partnered with Serena Software’s founder, Doug Troxel, to acquire Serena Software business, its management and employees.

San Mateo, California based Serena Software provides application lifecycle management (ALM) suite and is best known for selling change management solutions for mainframe computing environments. In recent years it’s been trying to update its image by embracing agile development and DevOps.

As part of the deal, the current Serena executive team will continue to manage the company. HGGC’s CEO and Managing Partner Rich Lawson will join the Board of Directors as Chairman. No price was disclosed but the New York Times reported HGGC paid $450 million, far less than the $1.2 billion that Silver Lake paid when it bought Serena in 2006.

“Serena solves complex process and technology challenges for the world’s most demanding IT organizations. We will continue to provide world-class products, service and support to our customers,” said Greg Hughes, President and CEO of Serena. “HGGC’s support and expertise, along with Doug Troxel’s continued passion for Serena’s technology, will only enhance our abilities to capitalize on the strong position we enjoy in the markets we serve.”

Serena, which competes with the likes of IBM Rational and CollabNet, has struggled financially in recent years. It reported $135 million in revenue for the nine months ended Oct. 31, with a net loss of $3.7 million. HGGC will have tough task ahead to turn around Serena. Troxel said HGGC has a proven track record of working alongside company founders to drive renewed growth through strategic investments and acquisitions.

“The acquisition of Serena is consistent with our strategy of investing in technology companies that are clear leaders with significant revenue streams and exceptional customers,” said Rich Lawson, HGGC’s CEO and Managing Partner. “Serena is well positioned to lead new markets at the intersection of application development and IT operations to help the world’s most important brands speed the delivery of new software capabilities to their customers.”

Serena’s award-winning Orchestrated IT solution set to cater to IT that have embraced the DevOps movement. As part of the DevOps strategy, the suite provides developers with self-service provisioning of environments, more cloud and virtualized infrastructure deployment targets, improved resource management and demand planning.

Back in 2012, Serena predicted that the year 2013 and later would the year of DevOps. The prediction came true and DevOps has become a primary driver for IT organizations where businesses are turning more agile.