Mercury buys Kintana for $225m

A boost for an emerging software market

Mercury Interactive (MI) is to buy Kintana for $225m in cash and stock. Both software companies focus on how to get more out of IT assets, with Mercury at the forefront of an emerging categorisation called business technology optimisation (BTO). Kintana, which like MI is located in Sunnyvale, California, specialises in IT governance software. MI has long sold application testing, delivery and management software. Gartner has endorsed BTO and, in a MI statement, analyst Theresa Lanowitz said the marriage between the two vendors makes sense as it brings together two BTO markets. MI will pay $125m in cash and $100m in stock and take on 210 Kintana employees in a new business unit. The deal is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of this year.