Johnson added there are no product overlaps between SpringSource and VMware and that no changes are anticipated to the SpringSource product lineup as a result of the merger.

VMware said it plans to continue to support the principles that have made SpringSource popular: Interoperability of SpringSource software with a variety of middleware and an open source model important to developers.

In addition to offering the Spring Framework, which has been downloaded several million times, SpringSource, formerly called Interface21, also leads development of the Groovy language and Grails Web application framework and has been a key contributor to the Apache Tomcat Java server.

The acquisition has been approved by SpringSource stockholders and is expected to close this quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.