IBM completes Confluent acquisition, company delists from Nasdaq
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The news: International Business Machines (IBM) said it has completed its USD11 billion ($15.49 billion) acquisition of data-streaming company Confluent announced in December last year.
The context: The deal is expected to support IBM’s efforts to create a “smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI”, the tech giant said in a statement last year.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that corporate data is currently spread across multiple information-technology systems, but “to make AI agents work, “you need to be able to get data wherever it is.”
That’s why Confluent “has been something that we have been keeping an eye on for a long time,” Krishna continued.
Per the acquisition agreement, Confluent delisted from the Nasdaq on Tuesday.
The numbers: Under the terms of the deal, IBM acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Confluent for USD31 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of approximately USD$11 billion.
The sources: IBM, SEC filing, WSJ
