In a bold move, Hewlett-Packard is rounding out its application server offerings by licensing Iona Technologies' Orbix CORBA object-oriented middleware, said Iona officials.

HP is also in the market to acquire an EAI (enterprise application integration) player to plug application and business-to-business integration holes in its overall infrastructure strategy, according to an industry source.

The Iona pact solves two problems for HP: It updates the Java compliance of HP's application server line and betters the company's chances in an increasingly cutthroat market. HP will incorporate the CORBA middleware engine into its application server, said Dublin, Ireland-based Iona officials.

The J2EE specification 1.3 that HP needs will require vendors to have CORBA-compliant Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) application servers. The CORBA underpinnings are designed to provide a more robust environment with better transaction capability and security as well as interoperability among hardware platforms.

A set of EAI solutions would help HP complete the picture and "HP is trying to buy somebody in that space," said the industry source. The company has considered Iona, Tibco Software, and possibly IPNet Solutions or Vitria Technology, according to the source.

Keith Goldstein, vice president of strategic alliances at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tibco, said HP has a range of technologies to fill in.

"We're not currently engaged in any acquisition talks," Goldstein said. But he hinted that a partnership might be in the works. "Let's just say we're working very closely, and there is a solid relationship between executives,"he said.

After acquiring Philadelphia-based Bluestone Software last October, Palo Alto-based HP relaunched the Java application server as the HP Bluestone line. HP positioned the offering as a platform for distributed applications to be delivered via XML-based Web services.

-- Tom Sullivan and Martin LaMonica