Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc. has boosted its global database services with its first reported acquisition of the year.
The takeover of ApexSQL adds SQL server development and database tools, such as auditing, recovery, change management, development and documentation, to its product suite.
SQL Server is a database server by Microsoft designed to handle data in a management system.
Quest’s software works alongside databases to make them easier for customers to use.
The deal “will expand and significantly augment Quest’s existing database tools portfolio with an even deeper focus on SQL server in addition to market leading capabilities for Oracle,” Kathleen Owens, president and general manager of the Quest Information Management unit, told the Business Journal.
The acquisition strengthens Quest offerings for businesses and developers to securely automate the management, movement, and performance of databases to increase productivity and reduce costs, the company said.
Quest serves 130,000 companies across 100 countries, including 95% of the Fortune 500 and 90% of the Global 1000.
ApexSQL, which employs 80 people, is based in North Carolina and has operations in Serbia.
Financial terms of the transaction, which closed April 18, were undisclosed.
Quest is an independent entity under San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital, a Silicon Valley unit of noted activist investor Elliott Management Corp. in New York.
Esports Public Listing Delayed
Allied Esports International Inc.’s road to Wall Street is taking a bit longer than expected.
The Irvine-based esports firm’s reverse merger with Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: BRAC), a publicly traded blank check company based in Minneapolis with nearly $140 million in the bank, was envisioned as getting completed at the end of the first quarter when first announced around the start of the year. Then last month was given as a completion date.
“Our expectation is that this could all get concluded by the end of April,” Black Ridge Chief Executive Ken DeCubellis said during the Roth Conference in March.
April came and went without a deal. Black Ridge filed a proxy statement related to the transaction last week without a specific date listed for its shareholders to vote on reverse merger.
Under terms of the transaction, Allied Esports and its affiliated gaming company, the World Poker Tour, will be acquired by Black Ridge.
Allied Esports and World Poker Tour are currently owned by China-based Ourgame International Holdings Ltd., but have local operations in Irvine.
Together they employ 75 people here.
Under the original terms of the reverse merger, Black Ridge will issue 11.6 million shares—valued at $118 million—to Ourgame as part of the transaction.
Factoring in repayment of $32.5 million of debt, additional warrants being issued and about $50 million in milestone payments, the deal is valued at nearly $214 million.
Following completion of the reverse merger, the two companies will operate under a new corporate banner, Allied Esports Entertainment, and their stock will trade on the Nasdaq under the stock symbol “AESE.”
When the deal is completed, the public company will designate its headquarters as Irvine.
Allied Esports runs a variety of esports venues, mobile esports trucks and content production facilities.
A few years ago, the company set up the first dedicated gaming venue in North America in downtown Santa Ana.
