HP Expands Network Virtualization Business with Shunra

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) announced has purchased Shunra, a a Philadelphia-based application performance engineering (APE) company and current HP partner. HP hopes the acquisition will help to expand its mobile testing capabilities for its line of Loadrunner and Performance Center products, both of which allow users to test the efficiency of their enterprise networks.

Shunra's technology will help the company bolster its mobile capabilities and expand its growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) portfolio within its application delivery management (ADM) business. The press release cites recent figures from market research firm ABI, which predicts that the mobile application testing market could reach $1 billion by 2017.

HP did not reveal how much the acquisition cost, nor did it provide further details on how it will affect Shunra employees. The transaction is expected to close sometime in Q2 2014.

HP also was said to be in talks to purchase online file-sharing and cloud content management company Box, but the rumors were quickly dispelled after Forbes posted its initial article.