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NICE Systems (NICE) this morning said it agreed to acquired New York-based Fortent, a Warburg Pincus-controlled provider of anti-money laundering and financial crime prevention software, for $73.5 million in cash.

NICE said the deal will be accretive on a non-GAAP basis starting in Q1 2010.

NICE today is up $1.09, or 3.9%, to $29.11.

NICE Systems (NICE) is trading higher after the Israeli telecom security company announced a $55 million contract from an undisclosed government agency for - you’ll like this - “advanced telecom interception.” (What could be nicer than that!)

The contract starts in 2010 and will continue for 2-3 years, the company said.

In short, the NiceTrack equipment involved in the contract let’s you listen to other people’s phone calls. Or as the company puts it:

Nice Systems (NICE) this morning announced it has appointed Zeev Bregman as its CEO, replacing Haim Shani, who had previously announced his intent to serve as director general of the ministry of finance of Isreal. Bregman served as CEO of a subsidiary of stock-options backdating darling Comverse Technology (CMVT) up until February of 2007.

In a note to clients this morning, FBR Capital analyst Daniel Ives said the appointment should lift a cloud of uncertainty from the stock that has been hovering for the last couple of weeks. Ives has an “Outperform” rating on Nice Systems.

Oft-heard rumors of a break-up of stock-options-fraud poster child and telecom software provider Comverse Technology (CMVT.PK) are back in the news today — specifically, in the Israeli newspaper Globes, according to a note out this morning by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Daniel Ives. Those breakup anticipations have consistently been put aside amid turmoil in Comverse’s books, from the stock-options scandal of its former CEO, Kobi Alexander (he fled prosecution in Namibia) to accounting irregularities in its revenue recognition.