OpenText Corp.’s deal to acquire Micro Focus International Plc increases its scale, while capitalizing on digital transformation, the company's CEO said.

Mark Barrenechea, the OpenText vice-chair, chief technology officer and chief executive officer, said in an interview Friday morning "that digital transformation is the largest opportunity in the history of technology.”

“Most importantly, we're going to be having this increased scale to help customers to accelerate their digital transformations. To be frank, digital is the only answer today to fight inflation, to fight supply chains. To fight all the volatilities around us we need to automate,” Barrenechea said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Waterloo-based company is offering 532 pence per share of Micro Focus. The offer is a 99 per cent premium on Thursday’s closing stock price. 

Despite declines in revenue since 2018, Barrenechea said Micro Focus is on a path toward stabilization. 

“We believe under our ownership, we're going to accelerate that stabilization and return them to growth,” he said.

Following the acquisition, the combined group would have over $6 billion in revenue on a pro forma basis, according to Barrenechea.

Barrenechea said the acquisition would also make Open Text one of the top 10 software and cloud companies around the world in terms of free cash flow generation. 

“We're going to look a lot like SAP and we're going to look a lot like Oracle. And that's good company to be in,” he said.

OpenText previously acquired email encryption company Zix Corp., and a cybersecurity company, Carbonite Inc.