Oblix Agrees To Acquire Confluent Software

Terms of the acquisition, scheduled to be formally announced Monday, were not disclosed, but an Oblix spokesman said the Cupertino, Calif.-based, company had signed a "binding letter of intent" to purchase Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Confluent. The deal, which is an all-stock transaction, is expected to close in a couple of weeks. Both companies are privately held.

The purchase takes Oblix into the market for Web services management software, technology used to track and monitor communications between applications tied together through Web services standards, which are based on extensible markup language, or XML.

The market, currently comprised of many small vendors, is poised for consolidation as larger infrastructure vendors add the capabilities to their products through acquisition, analysts say.

Oblix's software manages passwords and authentication of people seeking access to corporate networks, usually through a portal. Once a person enters the network and starts a business activity, Confluent's software monitors the interactions between applications to ensure transaction integrity, while also maintaining security.

An insurance agent, for example, would enter his company's network through Oblix, but the underlying processing of an application for a new policy would take place through interactions between software managed by Confluent.

Oblix plans to sell Confluent's products separately, while also offering customers the option of an integrated package, Ken Sims, vice president of marketing for Oblix, said.

*This story courtesy of Techweb.com.