On completion of the deal with current owner American Capital Strategies, for an undisclosed amount, the business will be integrated with the web services and software business unit of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG).

Exstream's software, which includes Dialogue, Dialogue Live and AFP Studio, provides high-volume cross-media document automation and personalisation for marketing, billing and customer communication for sectors including finance, utilities, insurance, retail and telecoms.

"We expect that the acquisition of Exstream will allow HP to address a broader set of customers and be a strong leader in the fast-growing document automation market," said David Murphy, senior vice president, web services and software business IPG.

HP is the latest digital print firm to add cross-media software to its own portfolio. Last week, Kodak announced that the latest version of its Insite portal would support customised landing pages and personal URLs (PURLs) in addition to personalised print, while back in October 2006, Xerox snapped up XMPie.

Industry commentator Andy Tribute suggested the acquisition of a software provider in this market is a sign that the firm will also launch a high-speed digital colour press for high-volume applications such as data centre and transpromo.