Chris McClean

Top contenders in the IT governance, risk, and compliance market merged on Tuesday as Archer Technologies announced it is acquiring Brabeion Software. Forrester projected consolidation as a key GRC market trend for 2009, and we explored the issue further for IT GRC vendors in our report, "Consolidation Looms for the IT GRC Market."

This was a strong move for Archer, as other, larger vendors are closely eying the IT GRC space for acquisition potential. Along with the acquisition of Paisley by Thomson Reuters last month in the Enterprise GRC space, this is just the beginning of what’s to come over the next 12-18 months. The GRC market as a whole is extremely broad and ripe for growth, but it is also crowded with niche vendors. Market leaders and enormous outsiders will be eager to scoop up as much of the pie as possible, which means more deals are on the way.

Stay tuned.