Reports that rPath, the source code automation start-up founded in 2005 by ex-Red Hat technical folk, was looking for a buyer proved true.

Business analytics software shop SAS Institute has acquired its code and some of its staff expecting to expand its ability to automate and manage IT operations on multiple platforms and environments, including on-demand and in the private and public cloud.

It said it would better automate the set-up and management of SAS solutions in any virtual environment and is thought to give SAS a more direct path to support public, private and hybrid clouds than building the widgetry itself.

rPath employees have formed a new Platform Deployment Technologies Group within SAS R&D.

GigaOm said rPath, which billed itself as "the enterprise PaaS company," was "ahead of the curve" and had experienced management turnover that left it on "thin ice" although bookings were reportedly up 174% in the first half on cloud automation demand.

Terms were not disclosed but GigaOm figures it went for less than $100 million. rPath had absorbed $32.5 million in venture funding and what remains is shutting down.

"Our customers are telling us that the cloud and other virtualization platforms are critical technologies for them, and they want greater use of SAS throughout their organizations," SAS CTO Keith Collins said. "By acquiring rPath's key technology and industry knowledge, we will expand our commitment to the virtual applications and appliances space on a global enterprise level. In addition, we will further enhance our ability to build and deliver SAS solutions, such as SAS High Performance Analytics, in a cloud environment. This is a great fit for SAS and we're excited to have employees of rPath join our team."

rPath specialized in automating the assembly, provisioning and updating of diverse operating systems and middleware platforms and application stacks throughout the enterprise. Its technology was based on a unique version control repository for managing deployed software systems, resulting is a complete automation solution for low-overhead and compliant application deployment and maintenance.