IBM Corp. on Thursday won EU approval for its largest acquisition ever, the $5 billion cash purchase of "business intelligence" specialist Cognos Inc.
EU antitrust officials said the deal would not cause competition problems in Europe because the IBM's new market share for business analytics would be moderate with several strong rivals still offering customers alternatives.
Business-intelligence software helps big organizations gather data in "dashboards" that can be used to model such things as the financial impact of staffing changes or marketing moves.
IBM has been on a buying spree in recent years to build out its software portfolio, because software generates much fatter profit margins than IBM's sprawling technology-services business.
IBM had been primarily a provider of "middleware," coding that connects various kinds of software. Its recent push has led the company further into the business of selling applications as well.
Cognos merge into IBM's information management software division.
Cognos CEO Rob Ashe is expected to remain and report to the group's head, Ambuj Goyal, after the deal is completed in the current quarter.
Founded in 1969, Canada-based Cognos has 4,000 employees worldwide and earned $116 million on $979 million in revenue in its last full fiscal year.
IBM stock closed up 81 cents to $106.91.
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