Business Software Giant To Buy Boulder's Rally Software In $480 Million Deal

Business software giant CA Technologies is buying Boulder-based Rally Software Development Corp. in a $480 million deal announced Wednesday.

New York City-based CA (Nasdaq: CA) said Rally agreed to be acquired for $19.50 per share, which would total about $480 million. The deal is scheduled to close this fall, in CA’s second fiscal quarter.

Rally shares soared on news of the deal in early Thursday trading, up nearly 44 percent from Wednesday’s close as of 8:20 MT. (Click here for a live quote from Yahoo Finance.)

Rally Software (NYSE: RALY) went public in April 2013, the first time a Colorado software company had a successful IPO in more than a decade.

Rally creates software to help businesses that employ software developers to organize them into collaborative teams able to produce software quickly, in large volume and with the ability to improve and add features steadily.

CA was attracted to Rally as a leader in helping companies manage so-called “agile” software development.

“Software applications are changing the world, disrupting established business models and bringing in completely new experiences in areas from travel to banking. In order to compete, businesses need to develop high quality software quickly and reliably,” said Mike Gregoire, CEO of CA Technologies.

CA’s offer represents a 44 percent premium over the $13.51 per-share price the stock closed officially traded at Wednesday. Rally’s share price shot up in after-hours trading once news of the CA deal was made public.

Rally employs about 500 people, 280 of whom work in Boulder or the company’s downtown Denver office. The company has expanded its Boulder headquarters building — doubling the space there — to have room for 350 employees; it planned to start moving into the expansion this summer.

More than 35 of businesses in the Fortune 100 have been clients of Rally, the company said.

Tim Miller, Rally’s CEO, chairman and co-founder, said Rally has worked with CA for four more than years, and combining the businesses makes sense.

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