WSJ.com - IBM to Expand Software Line With $1.6 Billion FileNet Deal

The FileNet deal in context.   

The $35-a-share purchase of the Costa Mesa, Calif., maker of content-management software is IBM's fourth-largest acquisition, after PricewaterhouseCoopers's consulting arm ($4 billion), Lotus Development Corp. ($3.5 billion) and Rational Software Inc. ($2.1 billion), and its biggest purchase of a software company since it bought Rational in February 2003. Since 1995, IBM has bought 56 software companies, including the recent purchase of MRO Software Inc. for $740 million.

Another very important dimension, in the chart below -- software products are still among the most profitable (legal...) businesses in the world today...

 

Source: WSJ.com - IBM to Expand Software Line With $1.6 Billion FileNet Deal