IBM Completes Netezza Acquisition For $1.7 Billion
IBM, which announced its plans to acquire Marlborough, Mass.-based Netezza on Sept. 20, said Netezza will be integrated into the IBM Information Management software portfolio and related industry offerings.
IBM sees business analytics as one of its core growth areas for the foreseeable future. Revenue from business analytics products and services increased 14 percent in the company's third quarter and the company expects analytics to contribute about 20 percent of its growth through 2015, said Richard Michos, vice president of channel strategy, in a speech this week at Everything Channel's XChange Tech Innovators conference.
In the last four years IBM has spent more than $14 billion making 24 acquisitions related to business analytics.
Netezza's TwinFin data warehouse appliances, based on IBM's blade server hardware, are sold direct and are generally used by larger companies. But the Netezza Skimmer that debuted in January is targeted toward SMB customers and IBM executives have hinted that product could be sold through the channel.