IBM buys Cognos

IBM SAID IT AGREED to pay close to five billion dollars to acquire Cognos, a Canadian software outfit.

Big blue said the acquisition supports its Information on Demand strategy. Cognos becomes the twenty-third company to be subsumed into IBM's business information (BI) initiative.

Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group said IBM chose Ottawa-based Cognos, "because of its industry-leading technology that is based on open standards, which complements IBM's Service Oriented Architecture strategy."

Cognos, said IBM, provides the only complete BI and performance management platform, fully integrated on an open-standards-based service oriented architecture (SOA), and has a strong history of supporting heterogeneous application environments, consistent with Big Blue's approach.

The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

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