IBM shells out $11B for Confluent to help disparate data flow together

Dive Brief:

• IBM agreed to purchase data streaming platform Confluent for $11 billion Monday. Both companies’ boards greenlit the transaction, which is expected to close by the middle of next year, pending approval by Confluent shareholders and regulators, according to the announcement.
• The acquisition will expand IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities, creating pipelines across public and private cloud environments to feed data-hungry AI applications, significantly augmenting the company’s existing data and automation portfolio, IBM Chairman, President and CEO Arvind Krishna said in the announcement.
• “Data is spread across public and private clouds, data centers and countless technology providers,” said…