IBM Mergers & Acquisitions: Who's Next? [Software Advice]

Check the full post for the complete chart (back to 2001), more analysis, and a poll

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What Deals Will the Next Decade Bring?

We’ve identified eight key areas that we think IBM is likely to focus their purchases on.

The central criteria we see at the core of IBM’s M&A strategy is going after companies and technologies focused on the business of tomorrow. What does this mean exactly? We think they will focus on companies that offer:

• Software for managing cloud infrastructure;
• Software for managing applications in the cloud;
• Enterprise applications in the cloud;
• Professional services for cloud migration;
• Networking hardware and software;
• Virtualization platforms and related tools;
• Analytical tools for “big data” analysis; and,
• Other professional services.

IBM Mergers & Acquisitions: Who's Next?