It was announced January 17th that Chris Hsu, Chief Operating Officer of HPE and Executive Vice President of HPE Software will be appointed as the new CEO of the go-forward combined company once HPE Software merges with Micro Focus.

This is great news for the Vivit and software community. Chris has had a remarkable career at HP and HPE. In his current and previous roles, he has driven large scale transformations to enable greater company agility, instill operational discipline and drive profitability. As the leader of HPE Software, Chris is directly engaged with HPE Software's portfolio investment strategy, has a keen sense of the market and a strong commitment to a customer-centric culture.

Mr. Hsu will take up his role following completion of the proposed merger. Until then, Stephen Murdoch will remain chief executive of Micro Focus, and will then become chief operating officer for the enlarged group. Nils Brauckmann will remain chief executive of SUSE, and as previously announced, Kevin Loosemore will remain executive chairman until at least April 2018.

Micro Focus plans to announce further details of board composition and executive management of the enlarged group when the prospectus is published in the third quarter of 2017.

We hope you share our excitement at this news and the confidence it shows the market holds in Mr. Hsu, the HPE Software products and the HPE Software team.