IBM has entered into a definitive agreement with Vista Equity Partners to purchase Apptio for $4.6 billion. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the latter half of 2023.

Apptio, with over 1,500 clients, including more than half of the Fortune 100, integrates with major companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle, and SAP. This aligns with IBM’s commitment to an open partner ecosystem, and is expected to bolster its IT automation capabilities.

The merger will lead to the formation of a 360-degree technology business management platform, says IBM. Apptio’s capabilities, combined with IBM’s IT automation software like Turbonomic, Instana, and AIOps, will offer a “virtual command center” for spend management and optimization across clients’ entire technology spectrum. In addition, Apptio will bring to IBM $450 billion of anonymized IT spend data, unlocking new insights for clients and partners.

[Image courtesy: Apptio]