IBM CEO Arvind Krishna speaks at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, on March 11, 2025.
Andy Wenstrand | Sxsw Conference & Festivals | Getty Images
IBM announced Monday that it is acquiring data streaming platform Confluent in a deal worth $11 billion.
Shares of Confluent soared 26% premarket. IBM stock sank about 1%.
IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Confluent, according to a release. The transaction is expected to close by the middle of 2026.
“With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a release.
IBM said the deal will bolster its artificial intelligence offerings as it expects global data growth to more than double by 2028.
The addition of Confluent fits with IBM’s deal last year to land cloud software maker HashiCorp for $6.4 billion and the 2023 move to acquire Apptio in a deal worth $4.6 billion. Both of those acquisitions were all-cash deals.
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