IBM to buy audit, compliance firm
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(InfoWorld) - IBM plans to acquire privately held Consul Risk Management to enhance the compliance and security auditing capabilities of its Tivoli systems management software family. IBM said Tuesday it expects to close its purchase of Consul in the first quarter of 2007. At that point, Consul will become part of IBM's Tivoli Software business unit. IBM didn't provide any financial details on the proposed transaction. Consul's software lets customers track, report and investigate unauthorized access of corporate information by their employees. The company has two main software suites -- InSight, which focuses on the needs of enterprise users and zSecure, which targets mainframe users. The breadth of coverage of both distributed and mainframe systems appealed to IBM, according to Joe Anthony, the company's program director for Tivoli Integrated Identity Management. "It offers a lot of very good value and is very unique," he said. Some of IBM's customers are particularly keen to use their mainframes as security hubs so the addition of Consul's zSecure will likely prove appealing to them, he added. Aside from Consul's support of IBM's System z mainframes, the companies previously had no formal relationship. Although some industry analysts have put Tivoli Security Operations Manager, which debuted in July, and Consul's InSight in the same security information management category, Anthony doesn't see them as competing products. "Once you drill down, in terms of what they have, there's very minor overlap with Tivoli," he said. IBM plans to provide details on a road map for Consul's software when it closes the acquisition next year. The vendor hopes to quickly integrate the technologies with Tivoli. "They should dovetail nicely together," Anthony said. Acquiring Consul will complement the security management functionality IBM has within Tivoli software and the technology it gained from itsÂ $1.3 billion acquisitionÂ of Internet Security Systems, which closed in October, he added. Consul will help Tivoli define and flag what customers determine to be "acceptable use" of their data by those permitted to view that information, Anthony said. "We were definitely not as deep in that area," he added. "Consul is much more thorough." For instance, a bank may allow tellers to access customer information, Anthony said. Using the Consul software, the financial institution can track user behavior in accessing that data so it could be alerted that an individual teller was viewing 800 customer records per day when his or her peers were only examining 200 records. IBM's plans to retain Consul's 89 worldwide staff and to keep both of the company's laboratories operational. Consul has dual headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, and in Delft in The Netherlands. Consul, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in September, has about 350 customers, including Hanes, Fidelity Bank, Ford, Kroger, and Office Depot, many of whom are also Tivoli customers. Â
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To help its customers get a handle on all the data scattered across their enterprises, IBM Thursday announced plans to acquire Venetica, a privately held company that makes content integration software.
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InfoWorld - IBM boosted its software portfolio for small and medium-size businesses with plans announced Friday to acquire Net Integration Technologies, a software vendor in Markham, Canada.
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IBM Corp. has offered to buy Telelogic AB, a Swedish developer of software development tools, in a cash deal valued at 5.2 billion Swedish krona, or about US$745 million, the companies announced Monday.
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China&#39;s personal computer giant Lenovo Group Limited Wednesday signed an agreement with IBM to take over the latter&#39;s personal computer business for 1.25 billionUS dollars.
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U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday: IBM  CORP. IBM.N: The computer maker said it sealed deals worth  more than $1 billion in new work with two European companies  from which the information technology company just acquired two  Danish services providers.
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new software and business consulting services to accelerate the company's global Information on Demand initiative, which is aimed at helping clients better compete and pursue new business opportunities by using information as a strategic asset.
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By Sayer, Peter; Knorr, Eric  CONTENT MANAGEMENT  IBM LAST THURSDAY EXTENDED ITS run of major acquisitions, agreeing to buy business process and enterprise content management specialist FileNet for approximately $1.6 billion in cash.
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Lenovo Group, China&#39;s personal computer giant, Wednesday signed a definitive agreement with IBM to acquire Big Blue&#39;s personal computer
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China&#39;s largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) , said on Wednesday it is buying control of IBM&#39;s PC-making business for $1.25
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IBM's Solution for Compliance in a Regulated Environment is a suite of middleware tools that includes document and data management, application integration, business process management and collaboration features.
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IBM plans to acquire privately held Consul Risk Management to enhance the compliance and security auditing capabilities of its Tivoli systems management software family.
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The board of IBM Corp. has authorized up to $4 billion in additional funding for its stock buyback program. Armonk, NY-based IBM (NYSE: IBM) says it will repurchase shares on the open market or in private
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Backed up and integrated IBM plans on purchasing Ontario-based data protection firm DataMirror for approximately $161m. IBM will pay cash for the company, acquiring all outstanding stock for $25.88 per share.â¦
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IBM has agreed to buy Softek Storage SolutionsÂ for an undisclosed sum. It plans to use Softek's data mobility technology to build more flexible and efficient storage systems for customers of its Global Technology Services division.
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Business software maker BEA Systems Inc  has agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corp  for $8.5 billion, the companies said on Wednesday.
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IBM continued its data management-related acquisition streak Thursday by announcing plans to buy Venetica, a maker of content integration software.