IBM Takes SPSS for $1.2 BillionIBM Takes SPSS for $1.2 Billion

I'm at IBM's research center in Hawthorne, NY, today where a presentation is about to take place on the IBM Smart Analytics System, which is a comprehensive new take on the InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse solutions with prepackacked content such as vertical domain modules and solution accelerators. The bombshell announcement that everybody wants to hear about, though, is IBM's $1.2 acquisition of Chicago-based SPSS. That news was broken this morning by the Wall Street Journal.As the presentations began, Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM Information Management, took five minutes to address the big news on SPSS. He began by detailing the acquired company: 1,200 employees, 40 years in analytics and marquee customers including the Center for Disease Control, the Richmond Police Department and Infinity Property & Casualty Corp. among many others. Goyal then made the point that IBM had already OEM'ed SPSS technology to bring predictive analytics into the Cognos portfolio, but he said that by acquiring the company, IBM would be able to embed its technology "across our platform," which I take to include everything from in-database analytics to industry- and solution-specific applications.

I'm saving lots of questions for the Q&A (like what will become of SPSS's OEM deal with SAP BusinessObjects?), but we won't get to that for a couple of hours. In the meantime, don't let anybody suggeest that I didn't see this coming from a mile away (or at least seven months ahead of the announcement).I'm at IBM's research center in Hawthorne, NY, today where a presentation is about to take place on the IBM Smart Analytics System, which is a rebranding of the InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse solutions with prepackacked content such as vertical domain modules and solution accelerators. The bombshell announcement that everybody wants to hear about, though, is IBM's $1.2 acquisition of Chicago-based SPSS...