IBM Proposed Acquisition of ILOG

IBM and ILOG have signed an agreement today, whereby IBM will acquire ILOG for approximately EUR 215 million or $340 million in U.S. currency. The goal of this acquisition is for IBM to advance their BPM and SOA technologies with ILOGs Business Rules Management Systems software which will:

“enable IBM to help clients deliver critical business information in real-time, allowing them to make better business decisions faster.”

As also mentioned in this article from Fox Businesses:

“When completed, the acquisition of ILOG will strengthen IBM's BPM and SOA position by providing customers a full set of rule management tools for complete information and application lifecycle management across a comprehensive platform including IBM's leading WebSphere application development and management platform.”

This acquisition still has some hurdles to navigate since there are several prerequisites pending. The public tender offers still have to be reviewed to determine if they violate U.S. or EU antitrust laws, and are also contingent on a 66.67% share capital and voting rights minimum. In France, the offer is awaiting approval from the AMF and French Ministry of Economy.