Micro Focus is the classic techie stock for investors who don’t really like techie stocks. Lurking at the very unglamorous end of the software spectrum, it creates programmes to patch and augment legacy systems first installed 20 or 30 years ago. The business is a bit boring. The revenues are sticky and recurring.
Micro has prospered in recent years not by developing whizzy new products or chasing sales but by buying and integrating other similarly mature businesses. The deals have got progressively bigger. And the proposed HPE Software acquisition is a positive gorilla.
Kevin Loosemore, executive chairman, is confident he can replicate previous successes. “It’s click and repeat, basically,” he says. Certainly, it’s been hard to fault previous purchases, where he has nailed efficiencies no