No more big buys, says CA

CA isn't planning any more big acquisitions, at least not in the near future.

The management software vendor has made 15 acquisitions in the last two years - including buying Wily Technology for $375m.

But Michael Christenson, CA's COO, said there aren't any more giant deals coming up any time soon. Traditionally an acquisitive company, the rash of recent deals had been to plug gaps in CA's portfolio and he said the company doesn't have gaps now.

Christenson said: "What we are looking at now is technology add-ons, smaller pieces of creative functionality," adding that acquisitions will be smaller and less frequent. "I don't anticipate any $300m to $400m acquisitions - in the near term we are in good shape," he said, speaking at the CA World customer conference in Las Vegas.

The software company is also looking at ways to make its products more attractive to mid-market customers.

Much of CA's revenue comes from large businesses but it hopes to grow its mid-size business. The software company defines the mid-market as companies between 500 and 5,000 staff and revenues of $100m to $1bn - and calculates that there are 66,000 of these businesses around the world.

Bob Davis, senior vice president of CA's mid-market and storage business unit, said different sized businesses have different needs: "More is needed in terms of how the products are built and priced and packaged."

The company has unveiled the first of its products aimed at these customers - CA Recovery Management - which combines back-up and recovery and continuous availability.