Given that they were seeing each other more frequently in each other’s accounts, SpringSource has decided to tie the knot with the Apache Tomcat provider Covalent. The deal marked SpringSource’s first acquisition – as both companies are private (and still quite small), terms of the equity and cash deal were not disclosed. 

The acquisition, SpringSource’s first, brings two companies whose offices are on opposites sides of San Francisco Bay. But more importantly, it provides support for a complementary piece of technology to SpringSource. It marries the Spring Framework, which provides a simplified way of using the features of Java EE, with Tomcat, which is a stripped-down appserver (more technically referred to as “container”) for Java.

As both are open source, and both represent simplifications of Java infrastructure, it’s a pretty logical match. And as Covalent is a fraction of the size of SpringSource, Rod Johnson has found himself a company that's small enough for even a skeletal operation like SpringSource to swallow. 

“We were seeing Rod [SpringSource CEO Rod Johnson] and his team in accounts almost every day,” remarked Mark Brewer, former head of Covalent who not surprisingly was named VP and GM of the new SpringSource Covalent business unit.

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