With sales of personal computers and other electronic gear sluggish, many companies -- even traditional hardware vendors -- view software as a lucrative alternative. HP saw Autonomy as a way to boost its software efforts, and still says the deal will pay off in the years ahead. Santa Clara chipmaker Intel has been adding thousands of software specialists in recent years, and nine of Cisco Systems' last 10 acquisitions have been software companies. Worldwide sales of prepackaged software have surged from $307 billion in 2009 to nearly $375 billion this year and are forecast to exceed $485 billion in 2016, according to market researcher International Data Corp.