RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM is acquiring Boston-based software firm Turbonomic in another bid to strengthen its cloud offerings. It’s reportedly the most expensive purchase Big Blue has made since acquiring Raleigh-based Red Hat for $34 billion two years ago.
Financial terms of the deal announced Thursday weren’t disclosed by IBM but media reports indicate the purchase price could be as much as $2 billion.
“The transaction values Turbonomic at between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity,” Reuters reported.
The deal “complements IBM’s recent acquisition of Instana and launch of IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps [intelligent IT operations] to address AI-driven automation of IT; Powered by Red Hat OpenShift to run applications on any cloud,” IBM said in the announcement.
IBM acquired Red Hat as part of a still-unfolding strategy to capitalize on cloud computing demand.
According to IBM, Turbonomic technology “will enable businesses to assure application performance using AI and cut costs by optimizing the deployment of IT resources across development, test and production environments.”
“IBM continues to reshape its future as a hybrid cloud and AI company,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President of IBM Cloud and Data Platform. “The Turbonomic acquisition is yet another example of our commitment to making the most impactful investments to advance this strategy and ensure customers find the most innovative ways to fuel their digital transformations.”
Big Blue has made several acquisitions in recent months – including myInvenio, and WDG Automation – as it prepares to split into two companies.
IBM operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.
