IBM is paying €2.13 billion ($2.3 billion) to Software AG, a German corporate software provider, for two data integration assets.
IBM will gain ownership of WebMethods, which Software AG purchased for more than $500 million back in 2007, and StreamSets, a data integration platform that Software AG purchased only last year, as part of the all-cash deal.
It’s important to remember that Silver Lake actually bought Software AG earlier this year. For $2.4 billion, the private equity behemoth first acquired a majority 63% of the company before increasing its position to more than 85% in September. According to reports released today, Silver Lake has acquired 93% of Software AG and intends to quickly delist the business from the public markets.
Consolidated
The purchase of Software AG’s integration platform-as-a-service (IPAAS) toolset by IBM is part of the company’s larger embrace of the hybrid cloud, which it has strengthened over time with a number of high-profile acquisitions. These include the $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2018 and, more recently, the $4.6 billion purchase of Apptio back in June.
Even though cloud computing has many advantages for businesses, there is a growing movement away from vendor lock-in and single cloud environments in favor of a more hybrid approach that may rely on internal infrastructure locally for security and latency reasons but then use one or more public cloud providers for specialized resources when needed.
But doing so necessitates managing and processing data that could be kept in several on-premises apps as well as many private or public clouds. This is where data integration tools come into play, giving businesses the ability to create pipelines that can combine their data in any format and from any location.
In other words, IBM is essentially purchasing StreamSets and WebMethods—technologies that cover the several tiers that make up application and data integration, including WebMethods’ particular contribution of API management.
The foundation of AI is data as well, and IBM has recently been stepping up its AI efforts, as has almost every other company in the modern world. In fact, the business unveiled Watsonx, a brand-new data science platform this year that offers resources for developing and implementing AI in addition to managing all data sources on a single platform. And this is also the area in which IBM will leverage its two purchases.
IBM’s senior vice president of software and chief commercial officer Rob Thomas stated in a press release that “StreamSets and webMethods will help clients unlock the full potential of their applications and data together with IBM’s Watsonx AI and data platform, as well as its application modernization, data fabric, and IT automation products.”
