Brussels, 23/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 October, the European Commission approved the proposed acquisition by Hewlett Packard (US) of control over the US software company Mercury Interactive Corporation. The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
In the course of its investigation, the Commission noted that there was significant overlap in the parties' activities only with respect to performance management software, a category of software used to quantify the actual performance of applications once they have gone live with users. The Commission found, however, that adverse effects were unlikely to arise as Hewlett Packard would continue to face effective competition not only from established competitors with significant market shares, but also from many medium-sized and smaller suppliers also present in the market.
The Commission also investigated whether the proposed operation could drive competitors out of the market, either by bundling Mercury and Hewlett Packard products or by denying access for other performance management software vendors to up-dated information about Hewlett Packard's system management software. It concluded that the presence of strong competitors in each market would most probably render such strategies unsustainable. (ol)