In a move that makes perfect sense, Black Duck Software acquired Koders. Most of you know Black Duck as a company that helps businesses manage the legal risks around using OSS inside of their company or product. In many cases, Black Duck really helps managers and corporate lawyers get a handle on just how much OSS is being utilized at their company. According to Black Duck,

"...for example in technology M&A, where from 2005-2007 Black Duck products and services were used for due diligence of transactions with a total value exceeding $30 Billion."

That's a shockingly high figure. Wow. Kudos to Black Duck.

The Koders acquisition makes sense because more and more developers are developing by reusing code from external code repositories like Koders. Being able to tap into this source of code (pun intended) will help improve Black Duck's code scanning capabilities. As a result, this acquisition will improve the level of information (and protection) that companies using OSS have at their disposal, whether the source being leveraged is from a traditional OSS project or an online code repository such as Koders.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on April 28, 2008 06:13 AM