Coverity™ Acquires Software Readiness Management Vendor Solidware

Published 7th July 2008

Coverity, Inc., the leader in automatically improving the quality and security of C, C++, C# and Java source code, today announced the acquisition of Solidware Technologies, a Colorado-based software readiness management vendor. Technology from Solidware allows companies to objectively ensure the release-readiness of software by combining data from multiple quality and security tools, including Solidware’s own unique analysis technology. By synthesizing information from multiple sources, managers can identify, prioritise and direct the repair of code branches that pose the greatest risk of failure or vulnerability. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed...

“Coverity has always recognised that to deliver high integrity software, developers need multiple tools to help control the growing complexity in their source code,” said Seth Hallem, CEO at Coverity. “The acquisition and eventual integration of technology from Solidware will give our customers a top down view of their applications as they make progress against release requirements. This unique perspective will help managers deploy their developers more effectively and bring greater predictability to the overall development process.”

After five consecutive years of cash flow positive growth, during which Coverity was successfully bootstrapped by product sales, in early 2008 the company accepted its first round of outside funding. The $22 million round is helping Coverity fuel international growth and broaden its product portfolio through both acquisition and internal development efforts.

"Technology from Solidware is an important part of our development process, because it gives us an objective way to measure our Java code quality from multiple perspectives" said Marjo Mercado, Vice President of Engineering at Xceedium, Inc. "Utilising the release management capabilities in Solidware's technology is something we require of every Java developer prior to code check-in to ensure our quality standards are met."

Solidware is the second company acquired by Coverity in 2008. Earlier this year, Coverity acquired build management vendor Codefast. Technology and talent from both companies are expanding Coverity’s product portfolio in targeted segments of the market for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools.

“Engineering managers and executives need comprehensive visibility into software readiness to ensure that code meets quality and security standards prior to release,” said Sue Kunz, CEO of Solidware. “Because Coverity’s static and dynamic analysis products understand software systems at such a deep level, the combination of results from those tools with Solidware’s own analysis capabilities can deliver unique value to software development leaders.”

Solidware’s technology collects analysis data from other development and test tools, synthesizes the results, and presents development teams with visibility into code complexity, violation of best practices, software architecture, interdependencies and test coverage. The combination of these metrics allows managers to assess the software readiness of their releases, in addition to providing visibility into code of unknown quality that may be outsourced, open sourced, acquired or otherwise reused.

This high-level information about release readiness helps management and software architects identify risks and prioritise the repair of failure-prone code for their development teams. The technology acquired from Solidware will be enhanced to take advantage of Coverity’s patented Software DNA Map analysis system to help development teams ensure the integrity of their code.

For more information on Coverity, please visit: www.coverity.com