The Wall Street Journal reported on the twenty third (local time) that IBM plans to amass software developer Apptio for $5 billion.

In response to the report, Apptio develops tools for businesses to judge the software and services they use and manage costs. Financial corporations reminiscent of Allstate and Bank of America are major customers. Analysts say that IBM seems to have taken over this company with the goal of developing an answer that helps make technology investment decisions.

IBM, which was once a representative hardware company that makes computers, is transforming into an organization that focuses on cloud and artificial intelligence (AI)-related businesses. It is because demand for traditional hardware products reminiscent of desktop computers is decreasing.

In 2019, it acquired software supplier Red Hat for $35 billion (roughly 45.5 trillion won) to strengthen its cloud computing business. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who took office in 2020, is encouraging forays into the cloud and quantum computing, AI and blockchain realms.

IBM announced in April that its software sales in the primary quarter of this 12 months were $5.9 billion (about 7.7 trillion won), up 2.6 percent from the identical period last 12 months.

Founded in 2007, Apptio was sold in 2019 to non-public equity firm Vista Equity Partners for $2 billion. Vista later merged with Cloudability, a cloud financial management solution company, to extend Apptio’s corporate value.

IBM and Vista’s take care of Apptio is a really unusual move, considering that recent mergers and acquisitions within the technology sector have generally contracted as a consequence of the US government’s stricter stance, rising rates of interest and economic uncertainty.

Reporter Jeong Byeong-il jbi@aitimes.com