sterling commerce

IBM kicks off spending spree with Sterling Commerce

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said in a meeting with investors earlier this month that his company plans to spend $20 billion on acquisitions over the next five years. IBM announced Monday its first billion-dollar deal of 2010, acquiring Sterling Commerce from AT&T for $1.4 billion in cash.��
Tech M&A deals of 2010
If IBM makes good on its plans to spend $20 million on takeovers between 2010 and 2015, it will represent a more accelerated acquisition pace than IBM has maintained since Palmisano took the CEO position in March 2002.
IBM has spent roughly $14 billion to acquire 70 companies since 2002, according to a presentation by Mark Loughridge, IBM's senior vice president and CFO. Nearly half of those deals were inked in the last three years. From 2007 to 2009, IBM acquired 33 companies for $9 billion, with investments concentrated in business analytics.
The Sterling deal ranks among IBM's largest in recent years. IBM spent $1.2 billion to acquire analytics player SPSS last year, and in 2007 it offered $5 billion to acquire Cognos.
Here's a list of the companies Big Blue has acquired so far in 2010, beginning with the most recent.
Sterling Commerce: IBM is paying $1.4 billion in cash to acquire Sterling Commerce, an AT&T company that makes business-to-business e-commerce software designed to help companies connect with the systems of their customers, partners and suppliers. It also operates a hosted trading partner network for connecting business partners.
Cast Iron Systems: On May 3, IBM announced the acquisition of Cast Iron Systems, a data-integration specialist that focuses on connecting on-premise systems with cloud-based software. Its technology is available as a physical or virtual appliance, or a cloud service. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Intelliden: In mid-February IBM scooped up network change and configuration management vendor Intelliden for an undisclosed amount. Intelliden's automation tools can track changes made to network devices such as hubs, routers and switches and ensure those changes won't negatively impact the IT environment -- a capability that's crucial as data centers adopt virtualization and cloud-based services.
Initiate Systems: Master data management vendor Initiate Systems was picked up by IBM on Feb. 3 for an undisclosed amount. MDM software is designed to ensure consistency of data, such as customer and product information, that's recorded in multiple systems and applications within a company.
National Interest Security Company: IBM added public sector consulting expertise to its ranks with the Jan. 20 acquisition of National Interest Security Company. Headquartered in Fairfax, Va., NISC offers defense, healthcare, energy, logistics and security services, primarily to federal, state and local government agencies. Financial details were not disclosed.