1. In satellite communications, the process of locking tracking equipment on a signal from a communications satellite.
2. The process of achieving synchronization.
3. In servo systems, the process of entering the boundary conditions that will allow the servo loop to capture the signal and achieve lock-on.
Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188
In the business sense, acquisition is when one company purchases another; see takeover.
Acquisition is also the name of a software serving as a Gnutella client for Mac OS X. Based on Acquisition's code is the free GPL'd "acqlite," also for Mac OS X.