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ARMONK, N.Y. & MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -
20 Sept 2010 IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Netezza Corporation (NYSE:
NZ) today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for
IBM to acquire Netezza, a publicly held company based in Marlborough,
Mass., in a cash transaction at a price of $27 per share or at a net
price of approximately $1.7 billion, after adjusting for cash. Netezza
will expand IBM's business analytics initiatives to help clients gain
faster insights into their business information, with increased performance
at a lower cost.
The acquisition, which is subject to Netezza shareholder approval,
applicable regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions,
is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Netezza is a leading provider of high-performance analytics in a data
warehousing appliance that can be up and running in a matter of hours,
handling complex analytic queries 10 to 100 times faster than traditional
systems. The simplicity, speed and ease of deploying Netezza appliances
brings analytics directly into the hands of business users within every
department of an organization such as sales, marketing, product development
and human resources.
The rate and pace of data is accelerating the IT opportunity around
information and analytics. A recent Global IBM Study revealed that 83
percent of CIO's identified analytics as a top priority. The combined
strengths of IBM and Netezza are a key differentiator at a time when
organizations of all sizes are looking to gain more insight from their
business information.
The existing relationship between IBM and Netezza reinforces the combined
value to clients. Today, Netezza designs and develops its appliances
on IBM systems technology and combined with IBM software powers many
applications within organizations. The two companies have been strategic
partners for many years focused on workload optimized systems that deliver
integrated systems, software and storage for analyzing vast amounts
of complex data.
"IBM is bringing analytics to the masses. We continue to evolve
our capabilities for systems integration, bringing together optimized
hardware and software, in response to increasing demand for technology
that delivers true business value. Netezza is a perfect example of this
approach," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive,
IBM Software and Systems. "Netezza strongly complements our business
analytics capabilities and client base. Together, we have the opportunity
to quickly leverage the technology and accelerate the offering."
Today, more than 350 clients across a variety of industries have adopted
Netezza. These companies include eHarmony, Neiman Marcus, Time Warner,
Estee Lauder, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Nationwide Insurance,
Sapporo, NYSE Euronext, Virgin Media and others.
The simplicity of deploying Netezza appliances makes this technology
ideal for the needs of high-performance analytics, requiring minimal
administration and IT skills, and enables clients to run complex data
queries within days of deploying the solution.
"It's no longer just the CIO -- every single department from finance
to marketing professionals is tapping into the capabilities of analytics
to draw meaningful insights. But clients cannot sacrifice time, cost
or performance by deploying solutions that do not best meet each of
their business needs" said Arvind Krishna, general manager, Information
Management, IBM. "The addition of Netezza will reinforce IBM's
focus in understanding clients' needs by providing them a broader set
of analytics capabilities and bringing the power of analytics right
into the hands of business users at every level within an organization."
"Our vision of an appliance-based Intelligent Economy aligns
very well with IBM's Smarter Planet strategy. Netezza appliances
set the standard for performance and simplicity in data warehousing
and analytics"; said Jim Baum, President and CEO of Netezza. "Our
customers choose our appliances for their fast time to value and how
they simplify analytics against big data. Together with IBM, we are
looking forward to extending our capabilities to a much broader market."
For example, with Netezza appliances, NYSE
Euronext has drastically cut the time it takes to load and extract
massive amounts of historical data so it can run analytic queries more
securely and efficiently, while reducing runtimes from hours to seconds.
Virgin Media, a UK provider of TV,
broadband, phone and mobile services with millions of subscribers, uses
Netezza across its product marketing, revenue assurance and credit services
departments to proactively plan, forecast and respond to the effect
of pricing and tariff changes enabling them to quickly respond with
competitive offerings.
Both IBM and Netezza see the importance of integration from the multiprocessor
through middleware to business consulting to bring a higher level of
efficiency through workload optimized systems. For example, Netezza
appliance capabilities highlight integrated software with unique FPGA-Accelerated
Streaming Technology (FAST) that allows the system to execute analytic
queries at streaming speeds of up to milliseconds, significantly improving
the performance and response times for critical business decisions.
The acquisition expands IBM's information and analytics offerings,
including services available through IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization
Consulting organization. Today, more than 6,000 IBM consultants are
dedicated to analytics.
In the last four years, IBM has invested more than $12 billion in 23
analytics related acquisitions. In IBM's second-quarter of 2010, IBM's
analytics business grew 14%.
Following the close of the acquisition, IBM intends to integrate Netezza
within IBM's Information Management software portfolio. Netezza has
approximately 500 employees around the world.
About IBM
About Netezza Corporation
Netezza Corporation (NYSE: NZ) is the global leader in data warehouse,
analytic and monitoring appliances that dramatically simplify high-performance
analytics across an extended enterprise. Netezza's technology enables
organizations to process enormous amounts of captured data at exceptional
speed, providing a significant competitive and operational advantage
in today's data-intensive industries, including digital media, energy,
financial services, government, health and life sciences, retail and
telecommunications. For more information about Netezza, please visit
www.netezza.com.
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