Wednesday, 2 August 2006

IBM Buys Webify to Expand Software Services Portfolio

IBM has acquired privately held Webify Solutions to expand its wings on the fast-growing market of integrating corporate software systems. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Webify helps insurers, health care companies and banks, among others, share data among various software systems that otherwise would not be able to communicate with one another, IBM said in a statement.

IBM said 120 employees of Webify, based in Austin, Texas, will become IBM employees. Webify has operations in Austin and Mumbai.

SOA related sales, helped fuel second-quarter growth of 5 percent in IBM's software business, traditionally the company's most profitable unit.

IBM has made about 40 acquisitions in the past three years, including USD 2.02 billion of purchases last year.

Of last year's 16 acquisitions, 10 were in software, IBM said. The company has said it sees additional acquisitions in software and services, two areas it considers the most profitable.