IBM in advanced talks to acquire software firm Apptio for $5 billion – WSJ

International Business Machines (NYSE:) is reportedly in advanced talks to buy software firm Apptio in a deal worth around $5 billion, according to Wall Street Journal.

Apptio is a private software company owned by Vista Equity Partners. The private equity firm paid around $2 billion to acquire Apptio, whose software is used to track and manage software and services costs, in 2019.

The same media outlet previously reported that IBM is considering the sale of its weather business after it had divested Kyndryl Holdings (NYSE:). IBM is still trying to reaccelerate its growth profile after spending almost $35B on RedHat in 2019.

Responding to the WSJ article, UBS analysts believe that such a deal would not be enough to re-rate the IBM shares.

“Aside from an initial one-time revenue lift to IBM revenue in the year the potential deal would close, if Apptio drives incremental growth of ~$100M/yr, a transaction would only accelerate IBM’s PF revenue growth by ~15-20 bps.”