Corporates Intel, Siemens and Red Hat are set to exit US-based software management technology provider Black Duck Software, which agreed yesterday to an acquisition by electronic design software producer Synopsys for approximately $565m.
Black Duck provides technology that automates the process of securing and managing open source software by identifying and inventorying the software code and finding security or licence compliance issues.
The company’s Software Composition Analysis platform will expand Synopsis’ security offering. Barclays was Black Duck’s financial advisor for the deal.
The acquisition comes after $71m in equity funding, the most recent being a $5m investment by industrial product and appliance maker Siemens in mid-2015 that was made through its Siemens Venture Capital unit.
Flagship Ventures and General Catalyst Partners provided $5m for Black Duck in 2004, before joining software provider Red Hat, chipmaker Intel’s Intel Capital subsidiary, SAP Ventures – then part of enterprise software provider SAP – and Fidelity Ventures for a $12m series B round in 2005.
Focus Ventures led the company’s $12m series C round in 2007, which included Intel Capital, Fidelity Ventures, Flagship, General Catalyst and SAP Ventures, before it added $5m from all its existing backers in 2009 alongside $4.5m of debt from Gold Hill Capital.
Black Duck raised $12m in a 2011 series E round led by Split Rock Partners and secured $20m in a 2014 round led by General Catalyst. Both rounds included all the company’s earlier investors.
Andreas Kuehlmann, general manager of Synopsys’ Software Integrity Group, said: “Our vision is to deliver a comprehensive platform that unifies best-in-class software security and quality solutions.
“Development processes continue to evolve and accelerate, and the addition of Black Duck will strengthen our ability to push security and quality testing throughout the software development lifecycle, reducing risk for our customers.”