“The number of vulnerabilities to business-critical applications has gone up exponentially with the rise of web-based applications,” said Jonathan Rende, vice president of products, Quality Management Software, Software, HP. “Today, HP Software provides solutions that ensure that business applications run well. Now with the addition of SPI Dynamics, we can make sure it is also secure.”

HP, which has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SPI Dynamics, Inc., a provider of Web application security assessment software and services, seeks to further strengthen its leadership in the IT application quality management market.

Application quality management ensures that business systems, such as e-commerce Websites or financial and supply chain applications, function well without any performance issues.

SPI Dynamics technology, which is already integrated with HP Quality Center software, enables customers to assess and identify security vulnerabilities along the entire lifecycle of Web applications – from development, quality assurance and deployment. Customers can also use SPI Dynamics software to validate application security and quality after deployment and to meet auditing and compliance requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

Failure to test and remediate security defects or vulnerabilities before a business application goes into production leaves confidential information within a business-critical application at risk for security attacks and misuse.

“The combination of HP and SPI Dynamics will allow us to scale and provide our customers with the industry’s most comprehensive application quality, performance and security assessment solutions,” said Brian Cohen, chief executive officer, SPI Dynamics. “For more than five years we have partnered with HP, so I am very pleased to be joining forces to better serve our customers and partners.”

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of calendar year 2007. Following completion, the business will be integrated into the software unit within HP’s Technology Solutions Group.