IBM Is Close to $5 Billion Takeover of Apptio, WSJ Reports

Nick Turner, Bloomberg News

A logo on the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) pavilion at the Viva Tech fair in Paris, France, on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Viva Tech gathers startups, investors and executives from several countries and has become France’s leading event in technology and innovation. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. is nearing a deal to buy software company Apptio for roughly $5 billion, part of a push deeper into automation technology, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The two sides are in advanced talks and an agreement could be hammered out by the weekend, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation. Apptio is currently owned by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners.

A spokesperson for Vista declined to comment. Representatives for IBM weren’t immediately available to comment.

Apptio, founded in 2007, sells online services that help manage information-technology budgets, forecasting and analysis. The majority of Fortune 100 companies use its products, the company said on its on website.

IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna, who took charge in 2020, has continued to shake up the 112-year-old company. After the acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, IBM split off its Kyndryl business in 2021 and then divested the Watson Health division. He said last month that IBM is still focused on deals, but that they would likely be smaller than the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition.

It isn’t clear whether the roughly $5 billion purchase price for Apptio would include debt, the Journal reported.

--With assistance from Kamaron Leach.

(Updates with Vista response in third paragraph.)