IBM gets RedPill Boost

International Business Machines (IBM - Analyst Report) said this morning that it would buy a privately held Singapore-based company, RedPill Solutions, to expand in analytics and optimization, particularly in the financial services and telecommunication business area.

While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, the company expects to close the transaction later this year, subject to statutory approvals and regulatory reviews.

IBM’s analytics services offerings will get a boost from this acquisition as RedPill has a strong foothold in research and analytical services in key growth markets such as financial services, telecommunications, technology and hospitality.

Earlier, IBM had agreed to acquire data-analysis and statistical software maker SPSS Inc. (SPSS) for about $1.2 billion in cash to expand its Information on Demand (IOD) software portfolio and business analytics capabilities, including Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization and network of Analytics Solution Centers.

We believe IBM has been successfully executing a strategy through acquisition to accelerate initiatives such as Smarter Planet and Business Analytics and Optimization and are generating incremental revenues, strengthening its technology leadership.

The company will benefit from the growing business analytics services. According to Interactive Data Corp. (IDC), the market for business analytics software will increase by 7.8% to $26.1 billion in 2009.

IBM’s growing analytics acquisition spree will also hurt its major mega-vendor enterprise software rivals like Oracle (ORCL - Analyst Report) and SAP AG (SAP - Analyst Report), who provide strong analytics capabilities.

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