Software AG, the second biggest Germany-based provider of business software after SAP, has agreed the sale of its StreamSets and webMethods businesses to IBM for €2.13 billion ($2.3 billion). The firm, sold to private equity group Silver Lake in October for €2.6 billion, retains its legacy database business ADABAS Natural, plus its fast growing IoT and analytics divisions, Apama, Cumulocity IoT, and TrendMiner. Silver Lake also invested €344 million in Software AG in 2021.
Darmstadt-headquartered Software AG acquired US-based cloud data integration business Streamsets, part of the deal with IBM, for €524 million in March 2022, 18 months before it sold 85 percent of its share capital and voting rights to Silver Lake. Its data management and integration division, webMethods, into which StreamSets was integrated, is its single biggest concern, but much of its growth is with its trio of inter-related IoT and analytics units.
IBM’s interest in webMethods and Streamsets also comes after a five-year internal change programme at Software AG, which has seen the firm migrate customers to a subscription (as-a-service) model. The two businesses were united as a single integration platform as-a-service (iPaaS), Super IpaaS, two months ago (October), presented as an AI integration platform to combine APIs, application, data, and events integration capabilities.
IBM will integrate the business with its hybrid cloud and AI offers, as part of its watsonx AI and data platform. Dinesh Nirmal, senior vice president for products in IBM’s software division, said: “Application and data integration solutions are critical fo… deploying AI across enterprises. Combined with watsonx, as well as its application modernization, data fabric and IT automation products, StreamSets and webMethods will help clients unlock the full potential of their applications and data..”
Software AG called the transaction a “significant validation of its vision for AI-enabled enterprise integration platforms”. Sanjay Brahmawar, chief executive at Software AG, said: “Given IBM’s global scale and focus on hybrid cloud and AI, our people have a fantastic opportunity to develop the Super iPaaS proposition with them… Software AG and IBM are fully committed to delivering the best products and services available to their customers, and to contribute to their success.”
Christian Lucas, chairman of the board at Software AG and managing partner at Silver Lake, said: “The Software AG team has done exceptionally good work in bringing its integration business to the cloud and setting it on a compelling path toward its Super iPaaS vision. Silver Lake is proud to have helped the team identify and enable the next great chapter for this business with IBM, and we remain fully committed to supporting the Software AG team in progressing the company’s strategy.”
