IBM buys software company Red Hat for $46b
International Business Machines (IBM) said on Tuesday it has closed its US$34 billion (S$46 billion) acquisition of software company Red Hat, as it looks to ramp up its cloud computing business.
Underscoring the drive into high-margin businesses, IBM in October agreed to buy Red Hat, the company's biggest acquisition in its more than 100-year history.
Ms Ginni Rometty, IBM chief executive since 2012, has steered the company toward faster-growing segments such as cloud, software and services and away from traditional hardware products, but not without a bumpy journey.
The newer areas of focus have sometimes underwhelmed investors.
In an interview, Ms Rometty said the deal was driven by what its customers wanted and helping companies "move mission-critical work" to the cloud, offering a variety of hybrid public and private clouds.
"We have all the critical parts," she said.
Customers want hybrid cloud applications because they "look at their IT and they say, 'Look I can't just throw it all out and rebuild it'" and instead want a mix of public and private cloud applications "with one platform across it".
Ms Rometty cited as examples major IBM cloud customers like Morgan Stanley and Delta Air Lines. - REUTERS
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