Fresh off the news that it would acquire OpenPages, IBM today announced it has entered into definitive agreement 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 provides analytics solutions built into a data warehousing appliance that can deployed quickly and handle complex analytic queries 10 to 100 times faster than traditional systems. 
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.
IBM has more than 6,000 consultants dedicated to analytics and in the last four years, has invested more than $12 billion in 23 analytics related acquisitions. In IBM’s second-quarter of 2010, IBM’s analytics business grew 14%.
The two companies have been strategic partners for several years and Netezza appliances are designed and developed on IBM systems.
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, United HealthGroup, Nationwide Insurance, Sapporo, NYSE Euronext, Virgin Media and others.
“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.”
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. The acquisition is subject to Netezza shareholder approval, applicable regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.