CA, CSC kiss and make up, expand licensing pact
Computer Associates International Inc. this morning formally buried the hatchet regarding its ill-fated attempt to acquire Computer Sciences Corp. as the two vendors announced an expansion of their strategic alliance agreement.
CSC, the El Segundo, Calif., services provider, agreed to license all products that CA acquired earlier this year from Platinum Technology for use in its outsourcing and other services. Both vendors also agreed to drop their lawsuits initiated over CA's failed acquisition attempt.
"Last August the judge threw out some of the cases -- ours and theirs. We said, 'Let's move on,'" said a CSC company spokesman.
CSC's suit charged that CA obtained and used CSC trade secrets during the takeover bid, while CA's counterclaim charged that CSC wrongfully interfered with CA's tender offer. The wrongful conduct case alleged both public misrepresentations about CA and racist suggestions that, because CA CEO Charles Wang was born in China, CA could not perform national security work.
Honeycutt: CSC does not condone
In announcing the global software licensing agreement for Platinum products, CSC Chairman Van Honeycutt said in a prepared statement: "CSC does not condone any remarks which may have been made by any individuals working on or reporting on the takeover attempt or our defense, that could be construed or misperceived as discriminatory in any manner."
"The soul of this agreement is the statement . . . by Van Honeycutt that they oppose any thinking or behavior related to discrimination," said Marc Sokol, senior vice president and general manager of worldwide marketing at CA in Islandia, NY. "That was a very important aspect of this for CA."
The agreement brings into CSC's services fold information management software, including data warehouse, data mining and application lifecycle applications as well as database management software acquired by CA from Platinum.
"This is a recognition that the technologies we acquired from Platinum are extremely valuable," said Sokol.. "CSC can use this technology across the board to leverage what they do for help-desk and application development outsourcing, application lifecycle management and so on."
All suits have been dropped, added CA officials, who would not provide a dollar amount for the extended licensing agreement.