IBM Completes Acquisition of SPSS 

IBM has announced that it has completed its acquisition of SPSS, a publicly-held company headquartered in Chicago. IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire SPSS on July 28, 2009. With this acquisition, IBM expands its focus on business analytics and optimization designed to meet growing customer needs to cut costs, reduce risk and drive profitable growth.

The addition of SPSS will help IBM deliver comprehensive predictive analytics capabilities, including data collection for market research and feedback management, text and data mining, advanced statistical analysis and predictive solutions, enabling customers to gain insights into complex questions, predict potential future outcomes and take action.

SPSS will be integrated into IBM's Information Management software. Predictive analytics also will be a component of the smarter business systems that IBM is helping companies and organizations build to address the complex challenges presented by the exponential growth of data.

The acquisition strengthens the range of offerings available through the recently announced IBM Business Analytics and Optimization consulting organization. It is in alignment with IBM's broader business strategy, which combines organic growth with acquisitions to move the company into higher value capabilities that accelerate margin expansion.