Mercury's Star Rises

Mercury's Star Rises: "Mercury specializes in software that helps information technology executives plan and test the deployment of other corporate applications -- for instance, making sure a new procurement system actually streamlines operations rather than slows them to a crawl. It's a business IDC Research expects to top $1.9 billion in the next few years. Sources close to the company's negotiations say originally Mercury was asking $55 a share and talked to several potentially interested parties including HP, Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM), Computer Associates (CA), and Symantec (SYMC). 'Even after Amnon was fired, Mercury was one of the hottest girls on the block,' says one software executive. 'With its massive market share and proven products, every big enterprise software company has looked at them, from IBM to CA to HP to EMC.' "