Cognos/IBM merger gains shareholder approval

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IBM's intended $5 billion acquisition of business intelligence (BI) specialist Cognos received a boost this week as the latter's shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move.

The acquisition, which was announced in November last year and is still subject to regulatory approval, will enable the company to continue on its independent BI and performance management vision, complemented by the backing of IBM's product portfolio and global reach, according to Cognos chief executive, who used the day of the launch of Cognos BI 8.3 to provide an update on proceedings.

"Yesterday shareholders in a meeting in Ottawa voted overwhelmingly in favour [of the acquisition] - 99.8 per cent. The whole team is very excited about the opportunity the IBM/Cognos merger holds for our customers and our continued innovation," he said.

"Because IBM and Cognos have virtually no overlaps in our products, it allows us to continue this innovation. We're not going to spend time rationalising products... [We can have] a focus on continued innovation. I've been with Cognos for 23 years and I'm very, very excited about the opportunity we now have to take performance management onto the broader stage."

However, while the two companies don't clash in terms of their products and technology, Cognos intends to keep its options open when it comes to partnering with services companies. It currently works with a range of players and doesn't anticipate that changing to an exclusive relationship with IBM Global Services, despite its new parentage.

"We still want to maintain and grow our relationships with other service providers," Ashe said.

While Cognos might be the acquisition target as far as IBM is concerned, the company is no stranger to being the acquirer itself, as last year's acquisition of Applix demonstrates.

And, despite being busy being the acquirer and acquired, Ashe toasted the company's good performance in its third quarter.

"We still delivered a fabulous quarter, with 16 per cent growth in revenue and very solid earnings. [We also had] a very significant volume of large contracts. Last year we did 11 and this year we did 18 in the third quarter," he said.

"In terms of the long term, our customers can count on the fact that we're doing what we said we would."

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