In its  quest to become one of the leaders in asset management software, a category that has been projected to grow in excess of $1 billion by 2008, HP has signed a definitive agreement with Peregrine Systems to acquire Peregrine for $425 million.

Peregrine's capabilities include asset tracking, expense controls, process automation, service control, service alignment, enterprise discovery, IT executive dashboard as well as outsourcing, business continuity and consolidation management. Upon the close of the acquisition, said HP yesterday, Peregrine will be integrated into the HP OpenView business unit to create the industry's most comprehensive distributed enterprise management software solution. 

"As a result of this transaction, customers will see enhanced value with Peregrine's category leading products Service Center and Asset Center delivered through HP's global scale and capability," said John Mutch (pictured), president and chief executive officer, Peregrine. 

The acquisition will enable HP to become one of the leaders in asset management software. In addition, the combination of HP and Peregrine's solutions in service management creates what HP believes will be one of the broadest sets of capabilities available today.

The acquisition is subject to the approval of Peregrine stockholders and various customary closing conditions and is expected to close no later than the first quarter of calendar year 2006.

Upon completion of the transaction, Peregrine products will be available through HP OpenView software channels, and the technology will be leveraged across HP's Technology Systems Group and HP Services.