IBM is planning software acquisitions

According to Bloomberg/Businessweek IBM (Armonk, NY, USA) is planning more acquisitions to accelerate growth in its’ $22.5 billion software business, senior vice president Steve Mills said in an interview.

Last week IBM overtook Microsoft Corp’s position as the world’s second-most valuable technology company after Apple Inc. IBM may be investing $100 million to $300 million on software targets.

Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano has said he’s seeking $20 billion in additional revenue by 2015. The company aims to double or triple the pace of sales growth at companies it acquires and looks for deals that will add to earnings within two or three years, Mills said.

IBM had $99.9 billion in sales last year. Software, which had gross margins of 86.9 percent last year, is key to IBM’s growth plans.

The company has made almost 50 software acquisitions since 2006 in areas including data analysis, e-commerce, supply chain management and computer security, said Mills. More than half of those have been in business-data analysis, where IBM says it has spent $14 billion. The company expects such business analytics products to yield $16 billion in sales by 2015.

Source: Bloomberg