IBM will buybusiness intelligence softwaresupplier Cognos for about £2.5bn.
The buyout will complete in the first quarter of 2008, pending
approval from Cognos shareholders and US regulators.
IBM said the move would strengthen its Information on Demand
suite of products, which covers information integration, content
and data management and business consulting services.
This is the 23rd acquisition by IBM in support of its
Information on Demand strategy. "Customers are demanding complete
solutions, not piece parts, to enable real-time decision making,"
said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM
Software Group.
"Our broad set of capabilities - from data warehousing to
information integration and analytics - together with Cognos,
position us well for the changing business intelligence and
performance management industry."
Consolidation has been rife in the BI market. Earlier this year
Cognos also bought the much smaller performance management
software supplier Applix. Oracle purchased Hyperion, while Cartesis
and ALG Software were bought by Business Objects, which in turn is
now being acquired by SAP.
IBM intends to
integrate Cognos into its information management software
division when the deal closes. IBM rival Hewlett-Packard offers
a business intelligence and data warehousing platform built using
products from Cognos and it is unclear how the current news will
affect its users.