Why MariaDB and Progress Belong Together

As was recently announced on 26 March, 2024, Progress Software Corp. (“Progress”) has expressed interest in acquiring MariaDB plc (“MariaDB”), via an announcement under Rule 2.4 of the Takeover Rules. Why do we believe this makes sense for us, for MariaDB customers and developers and for existing Progress customers and shareholders?

A Strong Database Heritage

Progress was founded over 40 years ago with the goal of helping customers build mission-critical business applications with a platform that reduces complexity and provides the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) in the industry. That platform, OpenEdge, remains a core pillar of our company.

OpenEdge customers include many companies that you would recognize. But you might not know that a significant portion of our customers are other software companies that have built their applications (and businesses) on our platform.

Our commitment to OpenEdge remains strong, with our latest long-term support (LTS) release, 12.8, being supported until 2030. We are also actively working on the innovation releases that will follow and enable our customers to meet pressing business challenges well into the future.

We are no strangers to the SQL world either. OpenEdge supports SQL in addition to ABL, and our DataDirect connectivity products set the standard for ODBC and JDBC connectivity, already embedded in many popular applications.

Deepening Our Data Capabilities in the Age Of AI

Last year, we added the MarkLogic Muli-Model Database to our portfolio, along with Semaphore, which extended our capabilities to include the management of documents, graphs, geospatial, time series and more. We believe that this the combination of data platforms provides the means for our customers to embrace AI, leveraging private information with LLMs using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG).

We are convinced that MariaDB would be an excellent addition to the Progress portfolio, providing leading relational database capabilities to customers with applications built with a wide variety of languages and approaches.

The Ideal Long-Term Partner

Customer success, along with innovation and acquisition, is foundational to our strategy and is reflected by our high retention rates and customer satisfaction scores.

Our product commitment and customer relationships are measured not just in years, but in decades. We have a track record of success that goes back more than 40 years and are proud to have customers who have been with us since the beginning and continue to rely on and expand their use of our products.

Progress is not just a database company, however. We have a robust portfolio of infrastructure software products to build, deploy and manage enterprise applications. We believe this robust portfolio and proven financial success and stability make Progress the ideal long-term partner for MariaDB.