HP-Mercury merger comes to the boil

HP on Tuesday announced the completion of its merger with management software company Mercury Interactive, setting the stage for a revamped HP Software suite and renewed competition with IBM's software products.

HP, which two years ago increased its presence in the software market by offering new products and expanding its partner programme with third-party software companies, is trying to reinvigorate its software strategy again with the $4.5bn acquisition of Mercury.

The deal will provide HP with Mercury's technology for managing applications development, while bolstering the company's OpenView management suite and network management offerings for data centres.

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HP plans to delve into the details of its OpenView products and post-merger strategy next month during its HP Software Universe conference in Vienna, Austria, said Deborah Traub, vice president of OpenView Products.

Traub, along with Yuval Scarlat, a Mercury senior vice president of applications and product development, noted that because there is little overlap between the OpenView and Mercury product lines, there is relatively little integrating to do.

HP plans to retain all the major brand names associated with each line, including OpenView, the executives said. Those brand names will reside under the HP Software umbrella.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com