The deal, scheduled to be finalized in the first quarter of the year, will match Mercury's tools for IT governance and application management with Burlington, Mass.-based Systinet's software for SOA governance and management, according to Mercury executives.

Initially, Mountain View Calif.-based Mercury will operate Systinet as a wholly owned subsidiary to ensure that leadership focus and product releases operate "on all cylinders," said Mercury CEO Tony Zingale. However, the sales divisions of the two companies will begin working together immediately.

"We're very focused on ensuring ... that this pipeline in place at Systinet gets executed on, [and] the current releases get executed on," Zingale said.

Both the founder and CEO of Systinet will stay with the company, according to Mercury executives.

The acquisition signals Mercury's ability to move forward with its strategic plans despite ongoing challenges, Zingale said (see "Nasdaq to drop Mercury in wake of accounting mess") . An internal investigation into the company's accounting showed a pattern of incorrect recording of stock-option grants. According to the investigation, Mercury's CEO, chief financial officer and general counsel all knew of the inaccurate reporting and profited from it. In November, the three executives resigned from the company. Mercury was eventually delisted by Nasdaq because it failed to file financial reports on time.