Looking to enhance its social business vertical, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the acquisition of Kenexa Corporation (NYSE: KNXA) yesterday. The companies have entered into a definitive agreement, under which IBM will pay a cash price of $46 per share or a net price of approximately U.S.$1.3 billion.
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“The adoption of social business technology is supporting the growth of big data and the need for analytics in the enterprise,” IBM said in a statement, adding that its recent global study revealed that 57% of CEOs identified social business as a top priority, and more than 73% are making significant investments to gain insights into available data.
Indeed social enterprise tools are on the minds of both CIOs and vendors. Gartner has pointed out that CIOs worldwide should be aware of social technologies. “Social tools and computing create extended dynamic networks. The impact of social tools for business process management is incredible,” Cassio Dreyfuss, Gartner Research vice president on the CIO research team, told RCR Wireless News.
According to Forrester Research, the market opportunity for social enterprise apps is expected to grow at a rate of 61 percent through 2016.
Alistair Rennie, general manager for social business at IBM, explained that every company, across every business operation, is looking to tap into the power of social networking to transform the way they work, collaborate and out-innovate their competitors.
IBM noted that the acquisition bolsters its leadership in helping clients embrace social business capabilities while gaining actionable insights from the enormous streams of information generated from social networks every day. “The combined strengths of IBM and Kenexa are key differentiators at a time when organizations of all sizes are looking to increase workforce efficiencies and gain more insight from their business information,” the company’s press release stated.
As for Kenexa, the provider of recruiting and talent management solutions said it brings a “unique combination of cloud-based technology and consulting services that integrates both people and processes, providing solutions to engage a smarter, more effective workforce across their most critical business functions.”
With operations in 21 countries worldwide, Kenexa has approximately 2,800 employees and supports about 8,900 customers across a variety of industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail and consumer, including more than half of the Fortune 500.
The Kenexa acquisition will complement IBM’s social and HR business services leadership. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2012, subject to Kenexa shareholder and regulatory approvals, as well as the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
