Oracle has agreed to acquire mValent, a leading provider of application configuration management solutions. Oracle says that it expects the purchase of mValent to enhance Oracle Enterprise Manager with extensive capabilities for managing application configurations across IT environments. Customers are expected to benefit from increased operational productivity through automation, enhanced audit and governance, and improved application uptime.

"Effective application configuration management is increasingly important as businesses look to improve operating efficiencies," observes Richard Sarwal, senior vice president, Oracle Applications and Systems Management, in an announcement issued by the company. "With the addition of mValent, Oracle expects to be able to address this need by providing customers with the ability to collect, compare and reconcile deep configuration information of complex systems. This acquisition is consistent with Oracle's strategy for delivering cost-effective solutions for managing applications that enable customers to adopt new, innovative technology with reduced risk."

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2009. For more details, go here.