The merged company will operate under the Emptoris name, employ over 360 staff and share more than 150 customers including blue chips like GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft, Motorola, and United Healthcare.

Both companies are privately held and venture-backed and did not reveal terms of the transaction

According to analyst estimates Emptoris had an $70m in revenue last year and diCarta $31m.

No layoffs have been reported – diCarta had 135 staff – and the company will be headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts (where Emptoris is based). DiCarta’s San Mateo, California offices will be retained.

Both companies, which have partnered for the last two and half years, have been working closely over the past nine months to build an integrated platform for spend analysis, sourcing, contract management, compliance and supplier performance management.

It incorporates San Carlos, California-based diCarta’s Contract Management system into the new Emptoris 6.0 platform, which is also offered as a hosted, on-demand solution.

Emptoris has also said that certain modules of the platform have been certified to work with SAP AG’s NetWeaver Application Server and Portal. It will continue to certify additional modules over the next six months as well.

The company has also released a new spend-to-contract compliance solution, which officials said provides financial officers a clear and controlled view on their corporate spending and contract compliance.

A move to merge operations is a logical conclusion given the synergies that exist between contract management and spend analysis.

[We’re] both high growth companies and recognized market leaders. [We] focus on solving difficult strategic business problems that positively impact profitability, said Avner Schneur, who remains as Emptoris’ CEO.

The companies’ software was cumulatively used to manage over $3 trillion of spend last year – to help source over $110bn of products and services and manage contracts worth of $65bn.