Hewlett-Packard Co. said recently that it has reached an agreement to acquire Mercury Interactive Corp., an IT management software and services firm, in a deal worth approximately $4.5 billion.

HP officials said in a statement announcing the deal that they expect the purchase to boost HP's portfolio of IT management software and services.

"Today, we are combining two market-leading businesses to create the most powerful management software portfolio in the industry," said Mark Hurd, HP's CEO and president. "Together, they will help customers cut their IT costs, speed the delivery of new services and drive profitable growth at HP. We expect this important acquisition to deliver significant value for our shareholders."

Mercury Interactive CEO and President Tony Zingale said the union means the two companies will "instantly become the industry's premier provider of business technology optimization software." Jason Bloomberg, an analyst with ZapThink LLC in Baltimore, said that the deal now creates a battle of the titans between HP, CA and IBM to see who can put together the most compelete enterprise information management offering. He said the battle zone is shaping up to be over service-oriented governance.

"With the Mercury acquisition, HP now adds full Lifecycle management to the mix, and what will likely turn out to be the gem of the deal: the Systinet registry, HP's answer to IBM's new [Web services] registry product," Bloomberg said.

HP said it expects the purchase to close by the end of the year.

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Prashanth Rai