By John Burke, Principal Research Analyst, Nemertes Research Inc.

HP (NYSE: HPQ) is acquiring Mercury Interactive (NASDAQ: MERQE) for cash totaling approximately $4.5 billion, having agreed to purchase Mercury at $52.00 per share – a premium of about 33%. This newest merger in the management software market highlights management’s re-emergence as hot technology. It also shows the deepening importance of end-to-end service delivery management as an organizing principle in corporate IT, both driven by and driving the broader adoption if ITIL as a governance framework. Mercury began reorganizing its software around ITIL compatibility over three years ago, and gained PinkElephant certification for its governance and availability products in 2005. HP began acquiring ITIL-oriented companies a couple of years ago and building out its own ITIL-oriented IT service management (ITSM) offerings.

In Nemertes current research into service delivery and management, nearly everyone we have spoken with who is using HP OpenView is actively considering replacing it. Their focus, often, is shifting to a more application-centered view of their infrastructure. At the same time, nearly everyone is acknowledging the influence ITIL is having on their organizations, especially in the way they align IT services with business needs.

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