The acquisition follows similar purchases made by SWsoft earlier this year of control panel companies Sphera, Ensim Pro and Positive Software.

SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov says the latest acquisition follows the formula of the others pretty closely, with the community around the software coming before the code itself.

"What we are trying to acquire is primarily three things," says Beloussov. "One is the end customer base, so basically all the people accessing their web hosting or email accounts or hosted applications through Helm, which is about 1.5 million end users. The second is the channel, so channel members who are windows-focused and do not use Plesk. With Helm we get that part as well. Three is revenue."

Long-term, he says, the revenue from the Helm software will be easier to manage as a part of the larger set of SWsoft (soon to be Parallels) offerings.

"We can manage and maintain the Helm revenue significantly more efficiently than Helm does, because for us Helm is an important code base, but in the long run we're looking at taking all of the best features of the Helm control panel and having them on the same code base, which will be future versions of Plesk."

SWsoft says it will maintain existing Helm development resources and will carry on support for the software via its SWsoft support centers.

As with its other acquired products, SWsoft will incorporate the best features of Helm into its existing products over time.

Beloussov says the acquisition is part of a large and ongoing strategy for the company - a continuation of the previous deals, but not necessarily the end of that particular story.

"There's not so much difference between this acquisition and our other acquisitions," he says. "And there might be more acquisitions, I have to tell you, in that area."

As SWsoft continues acquiring control panels, however, the selection of potential acquisitions grows slimmer.