In The Media

by Joe Panettieri
Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT) has received a $2.32 billion takeover bid, allegedly from Dell. Insight Venture Partners, another recent bidder, has three days to make a potential counter bid for the desktop virtualization, IT administration and managed services software company.

by Frank Gurnee
Quest Software Inc. (NASDAQ: QSFT) known for its PacketTrap PSA Software and many other IT software solutions in the channel; accepted a $2.17B bid from private equity company Insight Venture Partners and has added Vector Capital to the buying mix. This comes as a surprise given that Dell Inc. had been vying for the company. Given the nature of Dell’s buying habits, and questions or expectations of what would become of the company once sold to Dell, may have weighed heavily on Quests decision.

by Joe Panettieri
Insight Venture Partners and a surprise partner now lead the bidding war for Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT). But published reports Tuesday evening suggest Dellcould still mount another counter-bid for Quest, which develops desktop virtualization, IT administration and managed services software.

by Larry Walsh
The “mystery” bidder that surfaced yesterday to buy Quest Software is none other than Dell.

by Joe Panettieri
Dell is the mystery bidder for Quest Software, according to published reports this evening. It’s too early to say if Dell will actually acquire Quest, which makes virtualization, IT administration and managed services software. But this is one of the wildest on-again, off-again, on-again M&A stories in recent history.

By Joe Panettieri
Quest Software and its PacketTrap managed services software business are back in the merger and acquisition news. Apparently, somebody has bid to buy Quest Software — and the bid is higher than a previous offer from Insight Venture Partners. Quest Software’s buyer could wind up competing against big virtualization companies (VMware, Microsoft and Citrix Software), IT management providers (CA Technologies, BMC) and MSP software providers. Here’s the update.

By Joe Panettieri
While parent Quest Software considers its future ownership options, business unit PacketTrapcontinues to gain momentum in the managed services software market. Plus, PacketTrap is preparing a complete, cloud-based, end-to-end managed services platform, according to Mike Byrne, director of MSP at Quest Software.

By Joe Panettieri
Dell and Quest Software M&A discussions apparently have fallen apart. For managed services providers (MSPs), that means Dell won’t gain ownership of Quest’s PacketTrap MSP and PacketTrap PSAbusinesses. But will Quest Software and PacketTrap still attract a buyer? Apparently yes.