Irish software integration and service-oriented architecture (SOA) company Iona Software is to be acquired by rival SOA specialist Progress Software in a deal worth approximately $268m (£136m).

Iona has been delivering distributed computing products based on common object request broker architecture (Corba) to customers in the US, Asia Pacific and Europe since 1991, and more recently expanded into SOA. Customers include Reuters, O2, Vodafone and LogicaCMG.

The company reported a $700,000 (£356,000) net loss for 2007, with total worldwide revenue yielding $77.7m (£39.5m). Iona's anticipated revenue for fiscal year 2008 is projected at $80-85m (£41-43m).