In the summer of last year, BladeLogic (NASDAQ: BLOG) launched its IPO, which skyrocketed nearly 50%. It helped that one of its main rivals, Opsware, get a $1.65 billion buyout offer from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).

Well, BladeLogic has now agreed to sell out, although at a lower valuation: $800 million. The buyer is tech veteran, BMC Software (NYSE: BMC).

BladeLogic is focused on helping to deal with the mind-numbing complexities of data centers, helping with things like compliance, downtime, speed and so on. Keep in mind that there's about $140 billion spent on data centers per year.

At the same time, over the past few years, BMC has done a good job restructuring its company. Now it's in a position to ramp growth - and BladeLogic will be a nice boost. In fiscal Q1, the company's revenues spiked 68% to $21.4 million.

Although, Wall Street is skeptical. In today's trading, BMC's stock is down 7% to $31.31.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

BMC blazes a deal for BladeLogic originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Morgan Stanley assumed coverage of Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) with an Overweight rating, Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) with an Equal Weight rating and UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) with an Underweight rating.
• Voltaire Ltd (NASDAQ: VOLT) was started with a Buy rating and $29 target at Goldman Sachs, with a Neutral rating at JP Morgan, with an Overweight rating and $12 target at Thomas Weisel and with an Outperform rating and $15 target at RBC Capital. Thomas Weisel said the market gives Voltaire very little credit for its strong position in the rapidly growing Infiniband switch market and RBC Capital believes the stock has impressive growth and gross margin momentum.
  
• Perfect World Co Ltd (NASDAQ: PWRD) was initiated with a Positive rating at Susquehanna, as the firm is positive on its growth potential in the online gaming industry in China.
• Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: ASPV) was initiated with a Sector Perform at RBC Capital, as the firm believes the current valuation is not attractive, and recommends $17 as an attractive entry point. The firm set a target of $22 on the shares.

• Drugstore.com Inc (NASDAQ: DSCM) was started with a Market Perform rating at JMP Securities.
• Wachovia started shares of BladeLogic Inc (NASDAQ: BLOG) with an Outperform rating and $17 target. The stock was also initiated at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating and at Citigroup with a Hold rating and $27.50 target.
• Lehman initiated Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc (NYSE: SPR) with an Overweight rating and $43 target.
• Goldman Sachs started shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc (NYSE: MMC) with a Sell rating and $25 target.

Analyst initiations 9-4-07: VOLT, PWRD and ASPV originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.