Briefs

By Hannah Smalltree, 12 Nov 2007 | SearchDataManagement.com

Years of rumors were laid to rest today as Big Blue announced plans to purchase Cognos, one of the few remaining independent vendors of business intelligence (BI) and performance management software.

Though speculation about an IBM BI purchase has persisted for years, spokespeople have refuted such rumors, saying the company wasn't getting into the BI application business. Instead, IBM has historically focused on the underlying information infrastructure -- providing databases, data warehouses and other data management tools, and partnering with application vendors such as Cognos, with which it's had a 15-year relationship. That approach appears to have changed today, with the announcement that IBM will pay $5 billion (U.S.) or $58 per share for the publicly held, Ottawa-based BI and performance management vendor. The combination doesn't surprise most analysts -- Cognos was a frequent subject of IBM acquisition rumors, though publicly it touted its vision of being an "independent" BI leader.

So what changed? IBM, Cognos and analysts from Forrester and Gartner all have slightly different answers.

"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. "IBM has been providing Business Intelligence solutions for decades. 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. We chose Cognos because of its industry-leading technology that is based on open standards, which complements IBM's service-oriented architecture strategy."

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