San Francisco  - Technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) is close to finalizing a 12-billion-dollar deal to acquire technology- services firm Electronic Data Systems Corp, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday in its online edition.

Citing people "familiar with the matter," the paper said that an announcement was expected soon.

The deal would bolster HP's attempts to compete with IBM in the race to provide lucrative technology consulting and outsourcing for large enterprises.

EDS was valued at around 9.5 billion dollars at the start of trading Monday, and the firm had revenue of 22 billion dollars last year. HP's services unit had revenue of 16.6 billion dollars last year out of a company total of 104 billion dollars.

The EDS deal would be HP's largest acquisition since it bought rival computer maker Compaq for 20 billion dollars in 2002.

The talks come amid a flurry of buyout activity in the technology sector, as mature companies attempt to use their cash reserves to buy companies with growth potential. Microsoft recently withdrew from a bid to acquire Yahoo in a deal that was seen as an attempt to challenge Google's dominance in online software and advertising. (dpa)