IBM looks poised to complete the acquisition of software management firm Apptio in a move that will support its ongoing hybrid cloud focus and provide the firm with “greater automation capabilities”.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal last week suggested that the deal, believed to be in the region of $5 billion, is nearing completion. Individuals close to the matter claimed that the deal could be completed within the coming days.
US-based Apptio provides a range of automated software cost management and hybrid IT tools, enabling customers to track, monitor, and reduce expenditures.
The firm works with several major US banks, including Bank of America, and has grown rapidly in recent years.
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IBM’s prospective acquisition of the firm marks the latest in a flurry of major deals in the last four years.
In 2021, the tech giant acquired Turbonomic for $1.5 billion in a move that signaled its growing automation focus. The firm, which provided automated cloud management services, was specifically targeted as the tech giant looked to “accelerate” its hybrid cloud and AI ambitions.
That acquisition came less than two years after IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat in a $34 billion deal that marked a step change for the company’s software services strategy.
2023 has also been a rapid-fire year for acquisitions at IBM. So far, the company has acquired six companies since January, and most recently announced a deal to acquire French firm, Agyla SAS.
IBM said this latest deal, announced in early June, will expand its hybrid multi-cloud services portfolio and “advance the company’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy” in the region.
IBM is bullish on AI hybrid cloud
IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna has made no secret of the company’s sharpened focus on AI and hybrid cloud capabilities since joining in 2020.
In an earnings call in October last year, Krishna described both as the “two most transformational enterprise technologies of our time”, and has since been highly vocal about the company’s AI plans.
That focus on hybrid cloud has also bore fruit for the tech giant in recent months. IBM recorded a significant boost in hybrid cloud revenues in its 2022 financial results, reaching $22.4 billion.
This marked an 11% increase year-on-year for the firm.
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