By By Larry Dignan
Publication Date: 2025-12-08 13:38:00
IBM said it will acquire data streaming company Confluent in a deal valued at $11 billion. The deal will give IBM an open-source data platform with an annual revenue run rate topping $1 billion that can provide governed data to AI agents.
In a statement, IBM said the deal will add to non-GAAP earnings in the first year and boost free cash flow in year two after the deal closes. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the companies will “enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs.”
Big Blue has been filling in its enterprise software portfolio via acquisition with its latest large deal being the $6.5 billion purchase of HashiCorp.
Confluent gives IBM a platform that will connect and reuse data for applications notably AI agents. In many ways, Confluent will be to IBM what MuleSoft and Informatica is to Salesforce–data connection and integration engines that provide the…
