IBM Pays $4.6bn For Apptio To Bolster SaaS Insights

IBM is making a multi-billion-dollar acquisition as it seeks to continue its investment in the AI and IT automation software sector.

Big Blue announced that it will acquire the software company Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for $4.6 billion in cash.

IBM said that the Apptio purchase will help it advance its application management, optimisation and observability offerings.

FinOps acquisition

Apptio essentially operates in the FinOps space, offering financial and operational IT management and optimisation software.

Apptio currently has more than 1,500 clients, counting more than half of the Fortune 100 among its customers. It also partners and integrates with the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle and SAP.

IBM said that as organisations digitally transform their businesses faster than ever, this causes IT environments to expand across public and private clouds, with multiple service providers.

To manage this dramatic increase in complexity, clients are apparently turning to Apptio’s solutions for integrated and simplified visibility into technology spend across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, labour and associated resources.

Apptio, together with IBM’s IT automation software and it’s watsonx AI platform, will help businesses around the world manage and optimize enterprise IT spend and derive tangible financial value and operational improvement, said Big Blue.

Apptio has three core offerings, all delivered as software as a service (SaaS) – ApptioOne, Apptio Cloudability, and Apptio Targetprocess.

Automation, AI

“Technology is changing business at a rate and pace we’ve never seen before,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM CEO and chairman. “To capitalise on these changes, it is essential to optimise investments which drive better business value, and Apptio does just that.”

“Apptio’s offerings combined with IBM’s IT automation software and watsonx AI platform, gives clients the most comprehensive approach to optimize and manage all of their technology investments,” Krishna added.

The acquisition of Apptio is a continuation of IBM’s focus and investment in hybrid cloud and AI and is expected to drive significant synergies across several key growth areas for IBM.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the latter half of 2023.