HP to land Mercury Interactive?

HP may be closing in on an acquisition of enterprise software maker Mercury Interactive, according to a network industry executive who shall remain nameless because we were just yapping at Interop when he told me. The possibility was also posed earlier this week by an Israeli online publication whose reporting had the negotiations far enough along to carry a purported price tag of $3.5 billion.

The CEO is not privy to any inside information, but says his antennae have the deal going down in part because he’s had no luck recently getting anyone from Mercury to return his phone calls – and that he’s not alone on that score. Rather than interpreting the silence as a snub he sees it as the calm before a blockbuster. Interesting theory.

Mercury declined to respond when asked about the possible deal by the Israeli publication.  I’ve put in a similar request to HP and you can expect a similar response.

(Told-you-so update; from HP: “As a matter of policy, HP does not comment on rumors or speculation.”)