IBM has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the US based Cognos, a firm that provides business intelligence technologies to K-12 and higher education and other sectors.
The deal is still dependent on shareholder and regulatory approval and other conditions but is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008 and is valued at about $5 billion. Cognos is a provider of several technologies used in education, including alumni management, enrollment and tuition planning, finance, human resources, marketing, and other business intelligence and performance management solutions based on open standards and built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The deal will supports IBM's Information on Demand strategy. IBM said it will integrate Cognos as a group into its Information Management Software division following the acquisition and will appoint Rob Ashe, currently president and CEO of Cognos, to head up the group. Cognos has more than 25,000 customers, including several colleges, universities, and school districts.
