Dell, Altiris agree to stock sale deal

Nick · 11-25-2006, 06:14 AM

Dell has been granted warrants to buy up to 1.5 million shares of Altiris as part of an agreement between the two companies to jointly develop software.

Dell can purchase the shares, which amount to 4.9 percent of Altiris's stock outstanding, for $23.13 each, Lindon, Utah-based Altiris said Friday in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Altiris, a maker of computer-management software, and Round Rock-based Dell agreed to develop applications that will be marketed under Dell's name. The warrants may be exercised if Altiris is sold or if Dell's sales of Altiris products reach an agreed upon level, the filing said.

Mike · 11-25-2006, 01:05 PM

My speculation is that Altiris is going to help Dell improve on their all-to-weak server management software offering. OMSA and it's equivelant are pretty simple and pale in comparison to others like HP InsightManager.

So now, the quesion I'd like your oppinions on. Will strengthening the Altiris/Dell alliance hurt Altiris's ability to provide OEM solutions for other vendors? Will this retard the growth of relationships with Phillips and Siemens/Fujitsu? Will it add ice to the cooling relationship with HP?

Talk back

Nick · 11-25-2006, 02:28 PM

Good question Mike.

I believe it will definitely strengthen the Dell/Altiris Alliance and would expect to see more things develop like this with them down the road.

I'm not sure how this will affect the HP/Altiris relationship. If HP ever gets their own management software off the ground I believe the relationship would cool off but I haven't heard anything about it since they bougth it. Wasn't it Radius?

Mike · 11-26-2006, 12:59 PM

Yeah, the former Novadigm's "Radia". My understanding from my last communication with an HP rep here in Singapore is that HP will typically pitch Radia first and go Altiris if it's a scenario that is better suited by that technology.

Radia does software deployment, configuration mangement and application control. They originally coined the phrase "desired state management". Their method is very similar to what Opsware does and what Altiris Application Management solution wants to be when it grows up

Mike · 11-26-2006, 05:06 PM

One more note on HP:
HPs "Openview" is sorta like a Notification Server in that its an open architecture that they can run plugins or "solutions" from. HP's radia has been live for a while and apparently they just bought a small company called Mercury who sells a very powerful Asset and Service Management tool. They are in the business of Asset/License management, Inventory tracking and Helpdesk.

HP has a website called managementsoftware.hp.com. Altiris is not found on this page. Guess this answers my question :|

Nick · 11-27-2006, 09:47 AM

Looks like the trading is going strong this morning if you read THIS. Altiris stock gained over $2 already.