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An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Register reports on privately held Perforce selling out to private equity firm Summit Partners [theregister.co.uk].

In a blog post, Perforce founder and former CEO Christopher Seiwald said, "like Steven Seagal in the movie Under Siege ("I'm just the cook"), under it all I'm still just the programmer, all dressed up. And all the while I've been looking for the real CEO to step in so I can get back to my programming in the basement."

In a more official statement via Summit, Seiwald said, "I have always been committed to doing the right thing for our customers and for the company, and I believe Janet Dryer is the right person to take Perforce forward while maintaining its unique culture and values. I’m thrilled to see Perforce enter this next phase of growth."

Fluff quotes from Seiwald and Summit managing director Peter Rottier are also included in the article, but El Reg's Joe Fay cuts straight to the chase: "What exactly that next phase of growth will be isn’t detailed. However, groups like Summit aren’t exactly in the businesses of building communities for the greater good. Presumably it will be looking to ramp up the firm’s revenues – while keeping a tight rein on costs – with a view to offloading it at some point in the future, either through an IPO or by selling it on." Before attempting to squeeze revenues from Perforce customers, perhaps Summit is best served looking at the creation resulting from when BitKeeper tried to squeeze more money out of open-source developers who wanted to see metadata [wikipedia.org].

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