For the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of deals involving GRC software companies, often featuring big players snapping up smaller, more niche-oriented companies.

In 2012, we’ve already seen one deal. SAI Global, based in Australia, has announced that it will acquire Compliance 360, a provider of GRC software, mainly in the United States. SAI Global aims to become a major player in GRC via the acquisition and is aiming to leverage the status of Compliance360 as among the fastest growing private GRC software companies, with a three-year growth rate of 195 percent.

The company has certainly fared well in Forrester Research reports, which have given the company high marks in the customers relations segment. We’ll likely see more deals for small companies that can be integrated into larger platforms. SaaS seems like an area especially ripe for deals. It’s fair to say that SaaS solutions are not tailor made for every component of the enterprise software stack. Some have suggested however that GRC looms as one area where SaaS vendors can make real headway. Keep in mind though that GRC deals in the SaaS space have been going for the last several years.

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