Updated: The cloud consolidation continues. rPath, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company that bills itself as “the enterprise PaaS company,” is rumored to be on the verge of getting acquired, multiple sources tell GigaOM. Business analytics giant SAS Institute is the company that is being linked to rPath. The price is being pegged at below $100 million.

There have been persistent rumors of rPath being for sale, according to cloud industry insiders. The company has had some recent braindrain and also has been perceived as a company that was ahead of the curve. It had raised $32.5 million in four rounds of funding. The company was started by former Red Hat employees and has seen some management turnover that had left the company on thin ice. However, it refocused its operations to get some growth. In a recent news release, rPath CEO Michael Torto boasted:

The company closed the first half of 2012 with 174 percent bookings growth over the same period last year. The company points to heightened demand for “enterprise PaaS” and active reseller relationships as the source of growth. “Over the last four quarters, we’ve seen a very positive shift in the market for cloud automation.”

In other words, this was as good a time for the investors to encourage the sale of the company. Both rPath and SAS have not responded to our queries and we will update the post as we get more information.

Update: On Friday, November 30,  SAS said it was acquiring the assets of Rpath. Terms were not disclosed. In a statement, SAS CTO Keith Collins said:

“By acquiring rPath’s key technology and industry knowledge, we will expand our commitment to the virtual applications and appliances space on a global enterprise level. In addition, we will further enhance our ability to build and deliver SAS solutions, such as SAS High Performance Analytics, in a cloud environment. This is a great fit for SAS and we’re excited to have employees of rPath join our team.”