"If HP intends using Autonomy and its own related assets as the basis for a concerted push into the analytics and information management space, Autonomy could benefit. But the question that can't be ignored is how capable a vendor with a very limited software heritage is of making it work."

Ovum analyst Mike Davis was more positive though.

"Buying Autonomy moves HP into the 'big league' of enterprise software vendors alongside IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP," he wrote.

"There are strategic synergies with the earlier acquisitions (not least the BI specialist Vertica), and given previous HP and Autonomy purchases, customers of both companies should regard this move as more of an opportunity than a risk."