Irish software firm FeedHenry has been acquired by the open source software specialist Red Hat for €63.5 million.
Founded in 2010 as a spin-out from the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group at the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), FeedHenry specialises in mobile enterprise application platform technologies.
It provides a cloud-based platform which enables large businesses to build and deploy mobile apps, which interact with their existing computer systems.
With offices in Waterford, Dublin, Staines, England and Burlington, Massachusetts, FeedHenry's clients include Aer Lingus and O2 UK and Ireland. The company employs about 65 people.
“Since our inception, FeedHenry has embraced open technologies and the cloud for mobile development and management. We are excited to become part of Red Hat, the leader in open source enterprise solutions, and see this as confirmation of the combined power of mobile and cloud, the mass-market adoption of mobile application and Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) platforms, and the growing popularity of Node.js. By joining Red Hat, we now have an opportunity to bring our leading mobile application platform to a wider audience of global customers and partners, to help them optimise for the mobile-first world,” said Cathal McGloin, chief executive officer, FeedHenry.
Mr McGloin joined the Waterford firm in 2010 having previously served as head of sales in the US for Arantech, which was sold to Tektronix in 2009.
Red Hat said it expects the deal to be completed by the end of the third quarter.
"The mobile application platform is one of the fastest growing segments of the enterprise software market. As mobile devices have penetrated into every aspect of enterprise computing, enterprise software customers are looking for easier and more efficient ways for their developers to build mobile applications that extend and enhance traditional enterprise applications. FeedHenry will help us enable customers to take advantage of the capabilities of mobile with the security, scalability, and reliability of Red Hat enterprise software," said Craig Muzilla, senior vice president, Application Platform Business, Red Hat.
