HP to buy Peregrine for $425 million

Hewlett-Packard plans to acquire software maker Peregrine Systems for about $425 million in cash, the computing giant said Monday.

Peregrine makes programs designed to keep tabs on a company's IT assets from acquisition to disposal and to streamline help desk operations.

HP plans to meld Peregrine's product line with its OpenView suite, which is designed to monitor business computing systems and keep them running smoothly.

The transaction must be approved by Peregrine's stockholders. HP said in a statement that it expects to close the deal no later than the first quarter of calendar year 2006.

San Diego-based Peregrine, founded in 1981, filed for bankruptcy in 2002 amid an accounting scandal. It reorganized its operations and emerged again in 2003.