IBM Formally Acquires DWL, Enhancing Data Integration Portfolio; Customer Data Integration Software Strengthens IBM's Information Management Capabilities

Business Wire, Sept 1, 2005

ARMONK, N.Y. -- IBM announced it has finalized the agreement to acquire DWL, a privately held company based in Atlanta and Toronto. Financial terms were not disclosed.

With this acquisition, IBM will provide clients with customer data integration software that enables a single, integrated view of customer information spread across multiple product and business silos. This capability allows businesses such as banks, insurance companies, retailers and manufacturers to quickly and consistently leverage their customer data to help address business challenges such as regulatory compliance, optimizing customer relationships, or integrating data from mergers and acquisitions.

The acquisition strengthens IBM's information management software portfolio, which includes the company's existing product information management software and enterprise data integration software.

IBM can now offer one of the most advanced, real-time, transactional customer data integration solutions in the market today, addressing the key challenge of delivering relevant customer information, both internally and externally.

The acquisition also extends IBM's leadership in master data management solutions by building on the company's existing enterprise data integration and product information management software, a key part of IBM's Information on Demand strategy.

Information on Demand

The desire by businesses to access, manage and deliver information more efficiently is driving rapid change in the IT marketplace. Traditional low-tech, hardware-only approaches by proprietary vendors are meeting with resistance as companies grappling with new government mandates and business demands strive to capture and integrate information in a more seamless, real-time fashion across the enterprise. IBM's information on demand approach combines deep business insight with open standards, advanced storage systems, sophisticated systems management software and leading information management software to create efficient, cost effective and flexible information infrastructures. Regardless of industry, IBM helps companies transform data into insight to enable information on demand.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers a wide range of middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the on demand era. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.

IBM, IBM WebSphere and the IBM e-business logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. For a list of additional IBM trademarks, please see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml