Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy all outstanding shares of business software vendor Opsware Inc. for about USD 1.6 billion, or USD 14.25 per share. HP plans to integrate the data centre automation specialist into its commercial software unit. The deal could increase the competitive positioning of as a challenger to IBM in the market for software that helps businesses operate and maintain their computing infrastructures. IBM offers a number of products in the segment through its Tivoli brand of data centre management tools.