Embarcadero Technologies
| Company type | Public (until 2007), then private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founder | Stephen Wong, Stuart Browning, Nigel Myers |
| Fate | Acquired by Idera, Inc. in October 2015 |
| Headquarters | Austin , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Wayne Williams (CEO from 2007) |
| Products | Rapid SQL, DB Artisan, ER/Studio, InterBase, Delphi, C++Builder, RAD Studio |
Number of employees | 500 (2012) |
| Parent | Idera, Inc. |
Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. is an American software firm that focuses on creating development tools and database management solutions. Established in 1993 by Stephen Wong, Stuart Browning, and Nigel Myers, the company’s first product was Rapid SQL, designed for Sybase database administrators. Over time, Embarcadero broadened its offerings to support Microsoft Windows and additional platforms, accommodating databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, and MySQL.
The company went public in April 2000 on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker EMBT. During the same year, Embarcadero acquired GDPro, a provider of Unified Modeling Language software. In 2005, it expanded further by purchasing Ambeo, a firm specializing in data security. Private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo took Embarcadero private in 2007 and appointed Wayne Williams as the new CEO.
In 2008, Embarcadero enhanced its suite of development tools by acquiring Borland’s CodeGear division for about $24.5 million. Three years later, in 2011, it introduced AppWave—an enterprise application store for Windows PCs that supports both commercial and open-source software. By 2012, the company reported annual revenues nearing $100 million and employed roughly 500 staff members.
Embarcadero is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with an additional office located in Brazil. The company sought to acquire CA ERwin Data Modeler from CA Inc. in 2014; however, the U.S. Department of Justice blocked this transaction over antitrust issues.
In October 2015, Idera, Inc. acquired Embarcadero Technologies but continued to operate the Embarcadero brand within its developer tools segment. This acquisition broadened Idera’s footprint in the database management and software development tool markets.
Database products
Prior to 2015, Embarcadero offered database-related products such as Rapid SQL, DB Artisan, and ER/Studio. Following the acquisition by Idera, these tools have been marketed directly under Idera’s portfolio. InterBase—a lightweight database designed for desktop and mobile application development—remained an Embarcadero product through 2016.
Application development
In July 2008, Embarcadero acquired CodeGear from Borland Software Corporation, incorporating several application development tools that were still active as of 2016:
- Delphi is a rapid application development (RAD) environment featuring an object-oriented Pascal language derived from Turbo Pascal. It supports Windows platforms and enables creation of applications for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android.
- C++Builder provides comparable RAD functionality utilizing C++, sharing the Delphi Visual Component Library along with a native C++ compiler. Most components available in Delphi are compatible with C++Builder.
- Embarcadero RAD Studio combines both Delphi and C++Builder into a single package for developing native applications across Windows, mobile devices, and databases.
- RadPHP, an integrated development environment tailored for PHP programming, was discontinued in 2012.