2010 is proving to be an interesting year for the reorganization of the GRC space. It kicked off with the public announcement of the EMC/RSA acquisition of Archer Technologies. Shortly thereafter you had the announcement of the merger of BPS and Resolver.

 
The merger of BPS and Resolver is intriguing. Unlike the acquisition of Archer in which you had a good size organization acquiring a smaller one, with the merger of BPS and Resolver it is two smaller organizations recognizing their symbiotic strengths to produce a stronger and compelling offering.
 
A GRC merger of this nature makes a lot of sense. Together they have hundreds of clients ranging from the mid-market up into the global enterprise. They now have a combination that delivers both traditional software as well as cloud/SaaS solution. The risk scoring technologies of Resolver expand the risk management capabilities of BPS. The audit management capabilities of BPS expand capabilities for Resolver. They bring together an offering that spans organizations size, industry, and needs. With both of their headquarters in Toronto provides further synergies and less upheaval for this integration. Though there are still areas that the combined organization does not deliver – such as policy management.
 
Expect 2010 to bring many more acquisitions similar to BPS and Resolver as well as those like EMC/RSA and Archer. There are a lot of closed door discussions happening right now as well as some firms looking at significant roll-up and integration strategies with a variety of players.

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