IBM Corp. said yesterday that it agreed to buy Cognos Inc. for nearly $5 billion, The Boston Globe reports.
Cognos Inc. is a Canadian software company having its
The purchase will help IBM to expand in the market for business intelligence software.
The software helps companies extract data and present it on digital formats. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2008.
IBM, with base in
Cognos took over in Westborough in September by purchasing
Applix Inc., an analytic software. The company has its corporate offices in
Paul Hamerman, vice president for enterprise applications at Forrester Research said: “It’s a very complementary acquisition for IBM.”
He added that IBM focused until now on infrastructure programs rather than application software.
On Monday Cognos’ shares jumped $4.17, or 7.9 percent, to $57.15 in Nasdaq while IBM’s shares increased on the New York Stock Exchange $1.20, or 1.2 percent, to $101.
Steve Mills, IBM senior vice president and software group executive said in an interview: “We certainly intend to grow the Cognos brand globally, but it’s hard to say right now where that growth will land,” The Boston Globe quotes.
IBM, the second largest software company in the world, acquired in 1995 Lotus Development Corp. of Cambridge for $3 billion and ever since then it has purchased another eight software companies in the Bay State, like Rational Software Corp. and Ascential Corp.
The company announced in August that it will consolidate its state software operations in a campus of 800,000 square feet, near Interstate 495
Cognos hasn’t got research and development in the state. Apparently
the senior management team will remain in
According to Gartner Inc., the technology research firm, business intelligence software is expected to reach $5.2 billion in 2007, an increase of 12 percent from last year.