CEO Paul: Deal will give Compuware a 'freer hand' to make changes
The proposed deal for a San Francisco-based private equity firm to buy Detroit-based Compuware Corp. and take it private will make it easier for President and CEO Bob Paul to continue realigning the company's various business units — and to get the rest of the shares of spinoff Covisint Corp. into stockholders' hands. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending approval from federal regulators. Overall, the proposed deal to take Compuware private has been praised by local investment bankers, private equity executives, professors of finance at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University and at least one of the company's institutional investors. Sudip Datta, T. Norris Hitchman Endowed Chair and interim chair of the Department of Finance at Wayne State University School of Business Administration, thinks Compuware will become a public company eventually. "Thoma Bravo will take it private for a couple of years at least, and then they'll likely see if they can take it public again," Datta said. "They may align the assets of Compuware with assets of other companies they hold to build a bigger company."
