HP snaps up software firm in buying spree

Continuing its takeover spree in the management software sphere, Hewlett-Packard on Thursday announced a deal to buy software maker TruLogica.

HP plans to mesh the technology of the privately owned, Dallas-based software company into its OpenView Select Access software for businesses.

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The resulting product is expected to automate a range of user management and access control tasks, cutting from days to hours the time spent on managing user privileges across multiple computing systems, HP said.

"TruLogica's automated user provisioning, combined with the breadth and depth of the HP OpenView management software portfolio, will help our customers drive down the costs and time associated with managing changes in user IT privileges," Nora Denzel, HP's senior vice president for Adaptive Enterprise, said in a statement.

Financial terms were not announced for the acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval. After the deal closes, TruLogica's technology and business will become part of HP's global software business unit, and its products will be sold via OpenView software channels.

The deal would add yet another piece to HP's Adaptive Enterprise strategy, which the Palo Alto, Calif., company has been beefing up through a series of acquisitions. Last month, the tech giant announced its takeover of two software makers, Novadigm and Consera Software, and also of a German services company, Triaton.

Adaptive Enterprise is HP's take on the utility computing trend championed by other tech heavyweights, such as IBM and Sun Microsystems. One major goal of utility computing is to help businesses respond more quickly to fluctuating operational demands and to tie together disparate computing systems.