UK tech firm Micro Focus is the new home for HPE’s “non-core” TRIM/RM/CM, software although HPE is retaining 51% of a joint venture company formed in the $US8.8B deal.

Some of Micro Focus’ previous acquisitions include Attachmate (2014) and Borland (2009). The firm provides software and consultancy services for clients updating legacy systems to more modern platforms.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it is spinning off and merging some non-core software assets in a deal aimed at continuing efforts to slim down its operations.

As part of the deal, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it will receive $US2.5 billion in cash and its shareholders will have 50.1 percent ownership in the new merged company. The software assets include areas such as application delivery management, big data and enterprise security.

The move follows the announcement in May that Hewlett Packard Enterprise would merge its technology-services division with Computer Sciences Corp. in a deal valued at about $US8.5 billion.

“They are fantastic assets,” Whitman said in an interview. “They’re just not core to our strategy.”

Micro Focus expects to improve the margin on Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s software assets by about 20 percentage points by the end of the third full financial year following the close of the transaction, the companies said.

“It’s a really successful pure-play software company that knows how to manage mature assets and growing assets,” Whitman said. “And actually, these assets will get more investment with Micro Focus than they would with us.”

Meanwhile the $US74 billion merger of Dell and EMC has been completed, with no word on the long term fate of the EMC Enterprise Content Division (ECD), including Documentum, InfoArchive and the new LEAP cloud apps.