Some in the market are nervous about the $8.8 billion purchase by Micro Focus International of Hewlett Packard’s software business. This is the biggest ever reverse takeover in the technology sector. It will treble the British company’s revenues and make it the largest UK player in that sector. Yet experience tells us that any such deal across the Atlantic also has a degree of execution risk.
Then there was the news, in May, that the HP software business had suffered a fall in revenues of about 10 per cent year-on-year in the quarter to the end of April. There was always likely to be some disruption to the business on any pending change of ownership, but some wondered if Micro Focus was overpaying for a