Dell Acquires Quest Software for $2.36 Billion

Dell just announced its intent to acquire Quest Software and strengthen its footprint in software and services for the enterprise market.

The $2.36 billion purchase could help Dell to ramp up its recently created software group and add solutions for systems management, security, data protection and workspace management.

Founded in 1987, Quest has not achieved market leadership in any of the product categories it competes in, but it is a solid player that has earned a reputation to quickly move with evolving and changing market trends to capitalize on new opportunities. The company is best known for Toad, short for Tool for Oracle application developers. Quest is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, claims to have more than 100,000 customers, and reported sales of $857 million for 2011.

According to a press release, it appears that Dell is especially interested in Quest's "One Identity" security software, "Foglight" performance monitoring for applications, networks and databases, as well as Windows server management and database management solutions. Once Quest is integrated in Dell, the company hopes to hit about $1.2 billion in annual software sales.

Dell noted that the acquisition will add about 1,300 software developers and 1,500 software sales "experts" to its staff. Quest currently employs a total of 3,850 people.