IBM: A Yahoo Acquisition Emulator

October 17, 2010

In the pre-Semel days, Yahoo bought companies. Yahoo then allowed the companies to operate in silos. Bad move. Is IBM emulating this Yahoo tactic? I don’t know for sure but IBM has been buying aggressively in the data and analytics space. With Cognos and SPSS, what’s missing?

“IBM Acquires PSS, Bolsters Information Management Portfolio” reveals that the next puzzle piece may be information governance. As I wrote in my Information World Review column, everyone likes governance but not too many folks like to be governed. Obviously IBM has a different view.

For me, the most interesting passage in the ZDNet write up was:

The PSS portfolio will be added into IBM’s Information Lifecycle Management product line, part of IBM’s software unit. Information lifecycle management refers to the assessment of content, archiving, imaging and recordkeeping as well as analytics.

The article has a spectacular graphic that covers the waterfront from the anchor of an “atlas map”, whatever that means.

With $100 billion in revenue, if IBM can deliver governance via its “atlas map” pivot point, who am I to doubt? I just keep thinking about Yahoo’s approach to acquisitions. Not even UIMA can make these many different companies’ moving parts mesh smoothly without spending a lot of money. Maybe that is the point?

Stephen E Arnold, October 17, 2010

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Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Uncategorized

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.