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Local Tech Wire

RALEIGH, N.C. – Peter Karmanos, Jr. owner of the NHL Carolina Hurricanes, is expanding his software-as-a-service business to the Web application front.

(Nasdaq: CPWR), which is run by Karmanos as its chairman and chief executive officer, said Wednesday it would pay $295 million in cash for suburban Boston-based Gomez. Gomez provides Web performance monitoring solutions.

Compuware, which is based in Detroit, focuses on application performance management geared to enterprise networks. Customers include 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies.

Both firms offer their solutions through a software-as-a-service model.

The deal is expected to close in November.

Dolphin Equity Partners in New York is the largest shareholder in Gomez.

"Together, Compuware and Gomez provide the industry’s only unified application performance management solution, spanning the enterprise and Internet," said Compuware Chief Operating Officer Bob Paul in a statement. "For business and IT executives who are moving more business-critical applications onto the Internet, Compuware can now offer unified visibility, isolation and resolution of application performance problems from the data center to the customer. Competitive offerings only cover isolated portions of the Enterprise-Internet application delivery chain."

Gomez employs 272 people.