IBM acquire Apptio for $4.6 billion

IBM

IBM acquire Apptio for $4.6 billion

IBM have confirmed their intention to acquire Apptio for $4.6 billion, a sum which represents a 150% return for current owners, Vista Equity Partners (you may remember Vista Equity Partners also purchased Citrix in February 2022).

This continues two trends: consolidation within the Cloud Cost Optimization space and IBM’s seemingly inexorable march to becoming a “cloud” company. To demonstrate the former, here is a potted history of acquisitions in this space:

• Microsoft buy Cloudyn – 2017
• Flexera buy Rightscale – 2018
• VMware buy CloudHealth – 2018
• Snow acquire Embotics – 2019
• NetApp buy Spot – 2020
• IBM buy NordCloud – 2020
• NetApp buy CloudCheckr – 2021
• IBM buy Turbonomic – 2021

Snow also formed a partnership with Anodot in 2022.

Analysis: Why did IBM acquire Apptio?

This is a pretty sizeable acquisition for IBM and instantly boosts them up the rankings in the cloud cost management space. Apptio was the original home of the FinOps movement and has a strong pedigree with their Technology Business Management (TBM) approach.

Whether this will help drive customers to IBM cloud remains to be seen (personally I think not) but it will significantly strengthen IBM’s consulting arm when it comes to cloud cost management and FinOps.

IBM have recently been building their relationship with Flexera and one must wonder how this acquisition affects that. While it is only time that will truly tell, it is worth noting that Flexera and Apptio already had a joint approach in place and so perhaps this move will further strengthen the links between the two companies – and thus ITAM & FinOps too.

Join the conversation here – https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rich-gibbons-microsoft-licensing_cloud-ibm-apptio-activity-7079016936952471553-djAW

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