CA Embarks On Acquisition Path

That's the message of Mark Barrenechea, CA's executive vice president of product development, who said Thursday that "in many ways over the last three years, CA has turned its acquisition engine off. We have been focusing on building out our solutions. But as we look out at the remainder of this calendar and fiscal year, and next calendar year, we will consider strategic acquisitions for the company."

Barrenechea made his comments speaking at the CIBC World Markets Annual Enterprise Software Conference in New York. He did not elaborate on what types of acquisitions the Islandia, N.Y.-based technology vendor might consider.

CA competes with vendors such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and BMC Software in the crowded market for IT management solutions. Security is also a growing business for CA. Plus the vendor is currently ramping up a program to expand its fortunes in the white-box market.

Last October, then-chairman and -CEO Sanjay Kumar reportedly told an audience in Berlin that even though CA had not made an acquisition in "three years, eight months and one day," acquisitions were "in the company's DNA. It's like an alcoholic stopping drinking," said Kumar.

Kumar apparently overlooked CA's February 2003 acquisition of Netreon, a Mountain View, Calif.-based developer of software specifically designed for SANs.

In March of this year, CA also acquired privately held Miramar Systems, a provider of desktop management software.