Business software giant IBM is acquiring OpenPages, one of the most notable independent GRC software vendors to emerge in the post-Sarbanes-Oxely era.

IBM and OpenPages announced the sale Sept. 15. Financial terms were not disclosed. The two companies have already collaborated on various software products in the past, mostly in the financial-services sector. The OpenPages acquisition also allows IBM to keep pace with its primary competitors—Oracle, EMC and Hewlett-Packard—which have all scooped up smaller players in the GRC and risk management software sector in recent years.

OpenPages was founded in 1996, but spent the first seven years of its life in customer-management software. Only after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2003 did the company push into risk management and compliance, and quickly established itself as an early independent success in the then fast-growing sector. Today OpenPages has more than 200 clients across various industries, including Allianz, Barclays, Carnival Corp., Duke Energy, SunTrust, TIAA CREF and Williams. The company is based in Waltham, Mass., and has 140 employees.

OpenPages' software allows companies to monitor operational, financial and compliance risks and combine that information into one holistic glimpse of their risk management efforts.

IBM said in a statement that it will continue to support OpenPages technologies to keep its customer base happy, although IBM does intend ultimately to integrate OpenPages within IBM’s Business Analytics software portfolio, currently headed by IBM executive Rob Ashe. The two companies did not say what long-term role OpenPages’ CEO, Mike Duffy, might have after the acquisition, if any.