Progress Software to buy app development tool maker Telerik for $263M

Bedford-based Progress Software Corp. (Nasdaq: PRGS) Wednesday said it had agreed to acquire Telerik AD, a provider of application development tools, for $262.5 million.

Progress said it expects to fund a portion of the acquisition with debt.

Bulgaria-based Telerik, which has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, allows its 1.4 million-strong developer community to create "compelling user experiences across cloud, web, mobile and desktop applications." Telerik's revenue for the last year was over $60 million, according to Progress.

Progress said the combined company will allow it to create a service that enables developers to create applications driven by data for any device or for the cloud.

"User experience is defining the way application software is being selected. Telerik's strength is in helping developers create elegant, custom user interfaces for their cloud, web-based and on-premise applications," said Progress CEO Phil Pead in a statement. "Building applications today is truly complex. Developers also must deal with security, scaling, massive amounts of data and the ability to deploy on a large number of different devices. Together, Progress and Telerik can help to solve these issues so that developers can focus on building software that solves business problems."

The acquisition is expected to close in early December, Progress said. Following the completion of the acquisition, the Telerik founders and key management will join Progress.

Bedford-based global software company Progress has 950 employees. Telerik has about 900 employees. The company earlier this year told the Boston Business Journal that it planned to grow its headcount in Waltham to about 150 by the end of the year, up from 100 currently.