The recent spate of acquisitions by the tech titans, including HP, is indicative of a growing trend to buy what you need rather than build from the ground up. The most activity lately has been with IBM gobbling up over $2 billion in new service entities, including FileNet, which will give the vendor content management tools. Not only does the most recent purchase give IBM needed technology, it marks a big change in acquisition strategy, say experts, who note the FileNet buy also brings some key customers and a nice chunk of market share in the industry. It's all about shoring up the vendor's "Information on Demand" business program.

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