So it turns out I could have cashed in my government bonds and bought EDS, guys. Because I own almost $14 billion in bonds, right? Sure. Anyway, HP announced today that it’s buying Texas-based Electronic Data Systems. You might recognize EDS from our own little magazine–EDS’ Alex Halikias writes a column for us called “Inside Outsourcing.”

The announcement means HP will be able to stake a claim in the technology outsourcing space, and directly compete with IBM. As more ginormous companies and government agencies turn to outsourcing tech projects, the market is expected to grow, according to analysts quoted in the news article. The acquisition means HP will now have 210,000 employees in 80 countries. Whoa — we have three editors at Speech Tech.

HP makes the big bucks in selling printers, PCs, and servers, but also made $16.4 billion in revenue in business consulting. The EDS acquisition will only further strengthen the company’s grip on business and technology consulting. We’ll keep you updated with news when we hear more. Also, EDS’ CEO, Ron Rittenmeyer, will stay on board with the same title. [MercuryNews.com]

In other news– Though Nuance ended its second fiscal quarter with revenue above expectations, the stock has been sliding. Goldman Sachs analyst Derek Bingham is quoted in the article as saying:

“Nuance’s March report showed that the company’s Network Speech business is not immune from macro slowing, consistent with slowdowns we’ve seen in other large-deal areas of software.”

The company’s stock is down almost 7 percent today. [Barron's]

[Image: LearnMergers.com]