The investment group that owns legacy access software vendor WRQ Inc. announced Tuesday that it has reached a deal to buy rival Attachmate Corp. and plans to merge the two into a single company.

Terms of the deal, which will close next month, were not announced. The combined company will have revenue totaling more than US$200 million and a 16 percent market share in the host access space, executives said.

Jeff Hawn, now serving as chairman of WRQ, will become chairman, CEO and president of the combined company. Frank Pritt, the founder, president and CEO of Attachmate, will retire from Attachmate after the transaction closes.

Both companies build software for accessing and integrating legacy applications. The new company will be based in Seattle.