Ibm acquires ascential software

The acquisition is subject to approval from Ascential's shareholders and regulators, as well as other customary closing conditions. IBM expects to complete the purchase in the second quarter of , the companies said. After the acquisition, Ascential, in Westboro, Mass. Data integration is a key part of IBM's software strategy. Ascential has more than 3, customers worldwide. IBM and Ascential already have more than joint customers, the companies said.

For example, companies will be able to use Ascential technology to populate and maintain a data warehouse for strategic analysis, while tapping IBM's WebSphere integration products to correlate real-time events to information in the data warehouse, said Janet Perna, general manager of IBM's Information Management software division.

In addition, to compile a unified view of customer information from disparate data sources, Ascential software can create a consolidated master file for the most commonly used information, while WebSphere can add unstructured data to the file, she said.

All customer contracts will be honored and the approximately 1, Ascential employees will be offered jobs in similar roles at IBM, he said. IBM's integration products allow users to access information in real time, but without actually collecting the data in one physical location. Ascential's products move data into a repository, he said.

Ascential is the former Informix Business Solutions. They will now have a very strong offering. AMR Research Inc. Ascential customer Mannie Goldberg, director of data resource management for NStar, said his primary concern is that IBM preserve Ascential's technology and the relationships it has built with its customers.

Boston-based NStar, an electric and gas utility company, uses Ascential's software as the foundation of its customer data warehouse. Goldberg has been pleased both with Ascential's software and with its customer support. Informatica, meanwhile, fired off a statement drawing lines in the sand. Ascential ASCL is publicly held. Here are the latest Insider stories.

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