Stephen Chan, Asia director of Micro Focus, told Reuters that once Micro Focus had integrated Compuware's operations it will look at acquiring companies that will add value to its application management business.

"Within 3-6 months, our stomach should be slightly hungry already because the business would have been fully digested," Chan said in an interview.

The firm's proposed acquisition of Borland Software , which is facing a rival bid, would be a big step forward in a global software testing business worth about $2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) a year, said Chan.

"If we own both the businesses (Borland and Compuware) we will have 15 percent of the market share," Chan said. "The majority of the market is still using manual testing, and those are the ones we want to capture."

Micro Focus, which agreed last month to buy Borland for $75 million, said earlier this month that Borland had received a preliminary non-binding indication of interest from an unnamed financial buyer.

The company had offered to acquire Borland's common stock for $1.20 in cash, trumping Micro Focus's bid of $1.00 a share.

Chan declined to comment on whether Micro Focus will raise its bid for Borland.

Micro Focus has already completed the acquisition of the application testing and automated software quality business of Compuware, which it bought for about $58 million.

Chan said the software industry is likely to recover next year and he sees more software testing orders from banks and insurance firms in South Korea, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

"We have received three orders in our Asia Pacific business unit in the range of $5-10,000 per order in the last 16-17 days. It's not big but it's a healthy sign that this acquisition generates revenue for the business," he said.

(Editing by Neil Chatterjee)