webMethods

The company was founded in 1996 by married couple Phillip Merrick (who was chief executive) and Caren Merrick (who was vice president for marketing using the name Caren DeWitt at the time) to use Web standards such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and (later) XML to allow software applications to communicate with one another in real time. This type of technology would later be referred to as "web services". The company's first product, called the Web Automation Server was released in August 1996; this was later superseded by the webMethods B2B Server also called as webMethods Integration Server, which was the company's first product to see significant commercial use.

Initially, the founders used their savings and credit cards to keep the company operating in their house in Fairfax, Virginia.{{Cite news |title= Phillip Merrick, CEO, Webmethods |url= http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_20/b3681088.htm |work= Business Week |date= May 15, 2000 |url-status= dead |author= David Rocks |archive-date= March 29, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160329213707/http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_20/b3681088.htm }}{{Cite web |title= How Caren Merrick started WebMethods in her basement and helped build it to a public company that sold for $546 million |work= Mixergy |author= Andrew Warner |url= https://mixergy.com/interviews/webmethods-with-caren-merrick/ |date= June 8, 2016 |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

By 1999 the company had clients such as DHL Express, Dell, Dun & Bradstreet and Hewlett-Packard, and had completed several rounds of venture capital investment.[http://ipo.nasdaq.com/edgar_conv_html/1999/11/19/15/0000950133-99-003716.html#009 webMethods, Inc. S-1 Registration Statement]

Mayfield Fund and FBR Technology Venture Partners (an arm of Friedman Billings Ramsey) were among investors.{{Cite news |title= Web Company Helps Computers Do Business With Each Other |url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB928361338781494591 |work= Wall Street Journal |date= June 3, 1999 |author= Andrea Petersen }}

In March 1999 the company entered into a partnership with SAP AG to create an SAP-focused integration product called the SAP Business Connector. The company's revenue went from around $500,000 in 1997 to $14 million in 1999 and $202 million in 2001.{{Cite web |title= Form 10-K: Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2001 |date= April 4, 2001 |publisher= US Securities and Exchange Commission |url= https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001035096/000095013301501723/w50455e10-k.htm |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}

In February 2000, webMethods had its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ exchange. Just before the offering, the share price rose from its planned $13 to $35, and in its first day of trading, closed over $212 per share. The company raised only $175 million, while being valued at almost $7 billion. Although the term "unicorn" was not yet used, one analyst said "The market is kind of foaming at the mouth on three-letter buzzwords, like B2B and XML".{{Cite news |title= WebMethods Stock Shoots Up in IPO |newspaper= The Washington Post |author= Jerry Knight |date= February 12, 2000 |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2000/02/12/webmethods-stock-shoots-up-in-ipo/5a7d6f16-67ac-445f-9b01-07530533c27b/ |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

The quick rise of its share price is given as an example of the excess of the dot-com bubble.{{Cite news |title= This IPO market is nothing like late 1990s craziness |work= CNN Business |author= Paul R. La Monica |date= April 1, 2019 |url= https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/investing/ipo-one-day-stock-gains/index.html |access-date= November 17, 2021 }}

The IPO allowed webMethods to acquire Active Software for an estimated $1.3 billion in stock shares in August 2000.[http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/376351/WebMethods+Acquires+Active+Software.htm "webMethods Acquires Active Software"]{{Cite news |title= webMethods to acquire Active Software for $1.3 billion |url= http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/05/22/000522hnwebmethods.html |work= infoworld |date= May 22, 2000 |author= Eugene Grygo |url-status= dead |archive-date= December 8, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071208010535/http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/05/22/000522hnwebmethods.html |access-date= November 17, 2021 }}

Active Software, a public company based in Santa Clara, California and founded in 1994, had acquired Alier Inc., TransLink Software Inc. and Premier Software Technologies Inc in April 2000.

In January, 2001, webMethods acquired IntelliFrame Corporation, which had been part of Computer Network Technology Corporation, for about $31 million.{{Cite news |title= WebMethods Acquires IntelliFrame |url= https://www.clickz.com/webmethods-acquires-intelliframe/70368/ |work= ClickZ |date= January 26, 2001 |author= Roy Mark |access-date= November 21, 2021 }}{{Cite news |title= WebMethods Agrees to Acquire IntelliFrame for $31.3 Million |work= Wall Street Journal |date= January 26, 2001 |url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB980541400551853026 }}

While revenues grew, the company posted continuing operating losses due to the early 2000s recession following the bursting of the dot-com bubble through 2002.{{Cite news |title= WebMethods Pares Its Losses |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2002/10/23/webmethods-pares-its-losses/da7a465b-da36-40cc-a1ab-732468833965/ |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= October 23, 2002 |author= Renae Merle |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

Although its share price declined sharply from its peak, company executives, directors and investors still made large profits on their shares.{{Cite news |title= WebMethods' insiders gain despite market madness |author= Dawn Kawamoto |date= January 2, 2002 |url= https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/webmethods-insiders-gain-despite-market-madness/ |work= CNet |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

In October, 2003, the company announced it acquired three smaller companies in the integration market, for a combined estimated value of $32 million.

The Mind Electric developed a technology called Glue, and its founder Graham Glass became the webMethods chief technical officer.{{Cite news |title= webMethods grabs The Mind Electric, two other firms |author= Will Kilburn |date= October 15, 2003 |url= https://adtmag.com/articles/2003/10/15/webmethods-grabs-the-mind-electric-two-other-firms.aspx |work= ADT Magazine |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

The Dante Group developed software for business activity monitoring (BAM).

The former DataChannel assets from Netegrity were used in a portal.{{Cite news |url= https://www.cnet.com/news/webmethods-buys-a-new-direction/ |title= WebMethods buys a new direction |work= CNet |author= Martin LaMonica |date= October 13, 2003 |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

Deloitte estimated webMethods was the fourth fastest growing technology company in North America in 2003, on the Deloitte Fast 500.{{Cite news |title= High-tech growth ranked |url= https://www.deseret.com/2003/10/20/19790740/high-tech-growth-ranked |date= October 20, 2003 |work= Deseret News |access-date= November 17, 2021 }}{{Cite news |work= Network World |date= October 13, 2003 |url= https://www.networkworld.com/article/2337603/two-service-providers-rank-among-fastest-growing-tech-companies.html |title= Two service providers rank among fastest-growing tech companies |access-date= November 17, 2021 }}

By October, 2004, after revenues declined and losses rose, Phillip Merrick was replaced as CEO by David Mitchell.{{Cite news |title= WebMethods CEO resigns |author= Roger Hughlett |date= October 5, 2004 |work= Washington Business Journal |url= https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/10/04/daily3.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20041129071222/https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2004/10/04/daily3.html |archive-date= November 29, 2004 |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

In August, 2006, webMethods acquired Cerebra, a privately held company that developed metadata management software.{{Cite news |work= eWeek |author= Renee Boucher Ferguso |date= August 21, 2006 |url= https://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/webmethods-acquires-cerebra/ |title= WebMethods Acquires Cerebra |access-date= November 17, 2021}}

In September, 2006, webMethods acquired Infravio (which developed a software registry) for $38 million.{{Cite news |work= CNet |author= Martin LeManoica |date= September 11, 2006 |url= https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/webmethods-to-buy-governance-guru-infravio/ |title= WebMethods to buy governance guru Infravio: Integration software company WebMethods builds out its SOA product line with Infravio's registry |access-date= November 17, 2021}}

The company was an early developer and promoter of standards for web service technologies, having worked on XML-RPC, a precursor to SOAP, and developed Web Interface Definition Language, a precursor to the Web Services Description Language standard.[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soap/ "Using WDSL in SOAP Applications"]

As part of a larger trend of consolidation, Software AG (based in Darmstadt, Germany) bid to acquire webMethods in April 2007 for an estimated $546 million in cash.{{Cite web |url= http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/04/software-ag-webmethods |title= SoftwareAG Acquires webMethods |author= Stefan Tikov |work= Info Q |date= April 5, 2007 |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}

The offer price was more than 25% over the market price of its shares, and came one day after activist shareholders Augustus Oliver and Clifford Press disclosed a 6% stake and claimed the company was under-valued.{{Cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/worldbusiness/05iht-soft.4.5162842.html |title= Software AG to acquire webMethods |work= The New York Times |date= April 5, 2007 |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}{{Cite web |url= https://www.barrons.com/articles/BL-TB-2889 |title= WebMethods To Be Acquired By Software AG; Activists Were Pushing For Sale...Since Yesterday |work= Barron's |date= April 5, 2007 |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}{{Cite web |title= Schedule 13D: General statement of acquisition of beneficial ownership |date= April 4, 2007 |author= Augustus K. Oliver |publisher= US Securities and Exchange Commission |url= https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001035096/000090571807000158/webmeth13dmar07.txt |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}

Although speculation persisted that a competitor might make a higher bid, the deal closed in June, 2007.{{Cite web |url= https://seekingalpha.com/article/31792-webmethods-speculation-on-higher-bid-persists |title= WebMethods: Speculation On Higher Bid Persists |work= Seeking Alpha |author= Eric Savitz |date= April 9, 2007 |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}{{Cite web |url= https://www.informationweek.com/government/software-ag-completes-webmethods-acquisition |title= Software AG Completes WebMethods Acquisition |work= Information Week |date= June 1, 2007 |access-date= November 23, 2021 }}

The brand webMethods was retained, effectively making webMethods its flagship product line, immediately doubling Software AG revenues in North America.

WebMethods version 8.0 was released in 2009, supplemented with other Software AG products such as Centrasite, Tamino and EntireX. In 2010, the webMethods division of Software AG, known as business processes excellence (BPE) recorded $668 million (499 million Euros) in revenues and was a major contributor to company net income.

In 2011, Caren Merrick ran as a Republican for the Virginia state senate, saying her history with webMethods made her a "jobs creator", but was defeated by Barbara Favola.{{Cite web |title= Caren Merrick for Virginia Senate |work= Campaign web site |url= http://carenmerrick.com/heavy-content-page |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110430141031/http://carenmerrick.com/heavy-content-page |archive-date= April 30, 2011 |access-date= November 22, 2021 }}

In 2023, IBM acquired webMethods along with streamsets from Software AG.{{Cite web |title=IBM to Acquire StreamSets and webMethods Platforms from Software AG |url=https://newsroom.ibm.com/2023-12-18-IBM-to-Acquire-StreamSets-and-webMethods-Platforms-from-Software-AG |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=IBM Newsroom |language=en-us}} The acquisition was completed on 1st July 2024.{{Cite web |title=IBM Completes Acquisition of StreamSets and webMethods, Bolstering its Automation, Data and AI Portfolios |url=https://newsroom.ibm.com/2024-07-01-IBM-Completes-Acquisition-of-StreamSets-and-webMethods,-Bolstering-its-Automation,-Data-and-AI-Portfolios |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=IBM Newsroom |language=en-us}}

• IBM webMethods Integration Server 11.1 - October 2024 ([https://docs.webmethods.io/on-premises/webmethods-integration-server/11.1.0/readme/index.html LINK])

• Middleware (distributed applications)

• [https://www.softwareag.com/en_corporate/platform/integration-apis/application-integration.html webMethods product page]
• [https://signup.softwareag.cloud/#/basic-b?product=webmethodsioint webMethods Integration Free Trial] - A Free Trial is available through a sign-up page.
• [https://community.ibm.com/community/user/integration/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=82b75916-ed06-4a13-8eb6-0190da9f1bfa webMethods Technical Community] - As a part of IBM's TechXchange the webMethods community offers a forum to ask questions and connect with other webMethods professionals.
• [https://www.ibm.com/products/webmethods-integration webMethods Integration] - iPaaS solution, running in the cloud, that doesn't require installation and maintenance by the customer. Includes a Free Trial and Free Forever edition to test and use it.

Category:Defunct software companies of the United States

Category:Companies based in Reston, Virginia

Category:Software companies established in 1996

Category:Software AG

Category:2000 initial public offerings

Category:2007 mergers and acquisitions

Category:2024 mergers and acquisitions