ibm acquires ilog

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IBM acquires ILOG
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IBM announced Monday that it plans to acquire business rules management software maker ILOG in a deal valued at $340 million.

Under the deal, IBM will merge ILOG into its WebSphere brand. This is a move to expand its middleware software footprint. Middleware is a layer of software that helps servers running databases and Web site software talk with servers running applications.

ILOG was founded in 1987 and employs more than 850 people worldwide. Over 2,500 corporations and more than 465 leading software vendors rely on ILOG's market-leading Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS), supply chain applications as well as its optimization and visualization software components, to achieve dramatic returns on investment, create market-defining products and services, and sharpen their competitive edge.

ILOG delivers software and services that empower customers to make better decisions faster and manage change and complexity.

Revenue: $161.5 million for fiscal year 2007
Employees: 850 worldwide
Customers: 2,500 worldwide
Headquarters: France and California
Subsidiaries: UK, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Spain
Founded: 1987
Chairman and CEO: Pierre Haren






ILOG's board of directors has approved the transaction between the two companies and, subject to the receipt of a satisfactory fairness opinion regarding the financial terms of the offer, is expected to give a final recommendation prior to September 15, following which the offer should be filed with the French stock exchange authority

With its ILOG acquisition, IBM is reaching for a vendor that its competitor SAP uses and one in which SAP, at least in the late 1990s, had a 5 percent stake. Last year, SAP accounted for 3 percent of ILOG's total revenue, making it the largest customer for the French company.

By combining technologies with ILOG, IBM is aiming to provide customers with the ability to gather up all relevant information spread throughout their organization in real-time to make faster business decisions.

IBM has been known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company; with over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. Despite falling behind Hewlett-Packard in total revenue since 2006, it remains the most profitable. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company. It has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and IBM Research has eight laboratories worldwide

Revenue: $98.8 billion USD
Employees: 386,558 (2007)
Subsidiaries: ADSTAR, FileNet, Informix, Iris, Lotus, Rational, Sequent, Tivoli
Founded: 1889 (incorporated 1911)
Headquarters: New York
Chairman & CEO: Samuel J. Palmisano

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