Computer Associates Buys Cullinet: The world’s biggest...

Computer Associates Buys Cullinet: The world’s biggest independent software company, Computer Associates International, is adding another financially troubled competitor to its fold with an agreement to buy Cullinet Software for about $320 million in stock. The deal would unite the first billion-dollar software company with a former No. 1, Cullinet, which has not made an annual profit since 1986 and which put itself up for sale earlier this year. Computer Associates and Cullinet compete with each other and with International Business Machines in selling software for big mainframe computers made by IBM.