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IBM Secures Deal to Take Over Confluent Platform
(MENAFN) IBM unveiled Monday its acquisition of data streaming platform Confluent in an $11 billion transaction aimed at supercharging enterprise artificial intelligence capabilities.
IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for all of Confluent's issued and outstanding common shares. By the middle of 2026, the deal is anticipated to close, according to a statement by the firm.
"To fuel meaningful outcomes and drive productivity in operations, these applications, as well as AI agents, need access to connected and trusted data – in real time. IBM and Confluent will enable end-to-end integration of applications, analytics, data systems and AI agents to drive intelligence and resilience in hybrid cloud environments," the statement said.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the two firms together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications, and APIs.
"Data is spread across public and private clouds, data centers, and countless technology providers. With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI," he noted.
Confluent shares skyrocketed more than 28% following the announcement, while IBM climbed approximately 0.8%.
The blockbuster acquisition positions the technology veteran to dominate the real-time data streaming market, a critical infrastructure layer as corporations race to implement AI-powered applications requiring instantaneous data access across fragmented cloud environments.
Confluent's platform, built on Apache Kafka technology, enables organizations to move massive volumes of data between systems in real time—a capability increasingly essential for powering AI agents and machine learning models demanding continuous data feeds.
The premium valuation reflects IBM's strategic pivot toward AI infrastructure, betting that enterprise data connectivity will become the crucial bottleneck as companies deploy sophisticated AI systems requiring seamless information flow across hybrid cloud architectures.
IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for all of Confluent's issued and outstanding common shares. By the middle of 2026, the deal is anticipated to close, according to a statement by the firm.
"To fuel meaningful outcomes and drive productivity in operations, these applications, as well as AI agents, need access to connected and trusted data – in real time. IBM and Confluent will enable end-to-end integration of applications, analytics, data systems and AI agents to drive intelligence and resilience in hybrid cloud environments," the statement said.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the two firms together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications, and APIs.
"Data is spread across public and private clouds, data centers, and countless technology providers. With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI," he noted.
Confluent shares skyrocketed more than 28% following the announcement, while IBM climbed approximately 0.8%.
The blockbuster acquisition positions the technology veteran to dominate the real-time data streaming market, a critical infrastructure layer as corporations race to implement AI-powered applications requiring instantaneous data access across fragmented cloud environments.
Confluent's platform, built on Apache Kafka technology, enables organizations to move massive volumes of data between systems in real time—a capability increasingly essential for powering AI agents and machine learning models demanding continuous data feeds.
The premium valuation reflects IBM's strategic pivot toward AI infrastructure, betting that enterprise data connectivity will become the crucial bottleneck as companies deploy sophisticated AI systems requiring seamless information flow across hybrid cloud architectures.
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