BMC breaks into two: Mainframe and Helix businesses to operate independently

The divided companies should be able to better accelerate product development in their respective areas without any internal politics around feature prioritization, driving innovation in both the mainframe and distributed businesses at an accelerated pace, Elliot says.

This move could also help with strategic partnerships that perhaps didn’t make sense when the various product divisions were under one company, Elliot says. “It’s critical to note that with two businesses, each business now has the ability to partner with vendors that in the past might have been seen as competitors and off-limits. It opens up some interesting political scenarios,” he says.

BMC also emphasized that the division will benefit customers and partners by sharpening each company’s focus. “Our customers and partners look to us in their transformation journeys to enable business faster than humanly possible. As a strategic partner for ongoing innovation in their mainframe, distributed, cloud, and edge technology needs, the creation of two companies puts them at the core of each company’s mission with deeper specialization and vertical industry focus,” Sayed said in the statement.

“Also, let’s not forget that this now provides KRR with two potential financial exists—and the increased focus enables each business to potentially generate higher growth rates, which in turn drives a higher valuation,” Elliot explains.

Founded in September 1980, BMC Software started as a software developer for IBM mainframe systems and after 10 years expanded its product portfolio to include other systems, such as Windows. In May 2013, BMC announced it was being acquired by a group of major private equity investment groups, and in October 2018, BMC was acquired by KKR, a global investment firm. BMC was first listed as a public company in 1988, but it was then removed in 2013. In 2023, BMC filed confidentially for an IPO.

The transition to two independent software companies is expected to begin in early 2025, BMC said.