April 26, 2013

Customers can benefit from well-planned mergers and acquisitions

When technology business owners decide that it is time to implement a well-thought out exit strategy, they might be concerned that their customers could suffer. However, when entrepreneurs find the right company to acquire them, consumers can in fact benefit.

Successful technology mergers and acquisitions not only push the companies involved forward, but it will often provide customers with more opportunities as well.

CA Technologies announced in a press release that it acquired Layer 7 Technologies, a provider of Application Programming Interface (API) management and security. The statement explained that Layer 7's services will assist CA Technologies in better managing its current Identity and Access Management suite, including CA SiteMinder, and its technologies focused on DevOps including the CA LISA suite.  

Mike Denning, security general manager of CA Technologies, said in the press release that the technology acquisition of Layer 7 will further add to the synergy across both companies' technologies. The partnership will fuel cloud, mobile and 'Internet of things' initiatives.

"We use APIs every day, whether accessing flight data from our mobile device, using Google Maps from a hotel website or making payments online," he said. "There are billions of API calls a day and that number is going to increase with the proliferation of smart devices, ranging from vehicles, meters, TVs and other devices, as they start interacting over APIs."

Denning added that without API security and management, thousands of business services are vulnerable to disruption.

Layer 7 CEO, Paul Rochester, added that today's cloud and mobile technologies have pushed the need for strong API services. No longer a trend, but mainstream, it is important for businesses to find the best ways to leverage all API applications and services. With CA Technologies acquiring his company, Rochester said that all companies will be able to reap the benefits.