According to a statement released Monday morning, the companies have entered into an agreement and IBM will pay $27 per share for the firm. Netezza sells a data warehousing appliance that is designed to track high-performance analytics. Some of Netezza's clients include Neiman Marcus, Time Warner, Estee Lauder and eHarmony.
IBM's Steve Mills said, "IBM is bringing analytics to the masses. Netezza strongly complements our business analytics capabilities and client base."
IBM appears to be particularly bullish on analytics and business data lately. In July 2009, Big Blue acquired analytics and information forecaster SPSS for $1.2 billion. In June of this year, IBM acquired the privately held web analytics firm Coremetrics. And just last month, IBM paid $480 million for Unica Corporation, another company in the analytical and predictive space.