(MERANT plc, St. Albans, England, www.merant.com) Originally founded as Micro Focus Group in 1976 in the U.K., MERANT is a software and services company focusing on enterprise change management, Web content management and its PVCS products. Historically, Micro Focus/MERANT built its reputation on COBOL programming tools.

In 1998, the company acquired INTERSOLV, Inc., a development tools company, and launched its MERANT corporate identity with facilities in both England and Hillsboro, Oregon. The COBOL part of the team became a private, independent company in 2001, named, appropriately enough, Micro Focus. In 2004, MERANT was acquired by Serena Software, Inc., San Mateo, CA (www.serena.com), a specialist in application lifecycle management software. See Micro Focus, PVCS and INTERSOLV.