Database tools vendor Quest Software Inc plans to pay up to $54.7m for Sitraka Inc, a privately held company that offers applications designed to eliminate performance bottlenecks in Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) environments.

Quest said that by combining its own database and application performance management software with Sitraka's Java expertise, it will be better positioned to monitor current Java applications and the next generation of packaged applications.

Toronto, Canada-based Sitraka has approximately 200 employees in Canada, the US and Europe, and has an installed base of about 5,000 corporate customers. Quest quoted a recent estimate that 1.3 million Java developers in 2001 will grow to 4.4 million in 2003 and, as a flood of their work is released, maintaining optimal performance will grow as a concern for IT organizations.

News of the acquisition came as Quest released figures showing net income in the third quarter to September 30 of $2.5m, up from a loss of $10.8 on revenue 11.4% higher at $63m. For the first nine months, net income was $6.9m, up from a loss of $38.6m on revenue 0.6% lower at $186m.

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