IBM

IBM is doling out €2.13 billion ($2.3 billion) to acquire a duo of data integration assets from Germany-based enterprise software company Software AG. The all-cash deal will see IBM take ownership of StreamSets, a data integration platform that Software AG had acquired just last year, and WebMethods, which Software AG bought for more than $500 million back in 2007. Today, news emerged that Silver Lake has now bought 93 percent of Software AG, with plans to delist the company from the public markets imminently. And this is where data integration systems enter the fray, allowing companies to build pipelines that can pool their data regardless of where it resides and in whatever format. And that, effectively, is what IBM is buying in StreamSets and WebMethods, technologies that span the various layers that constitute application and data integration, including API management which is what WebMethods specifically brings to the table.