IBM to Acquire The Now Factory

Move Helps Communications Service Providers Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Customer Service; Extends IBM's Big Data and Analytics Platform

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IBM

Oct 01, 2013, 07:00 ET

ARMONK, N.Y. and DUBLIN, Ireland, Oct. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire The Now Factory, a privately held provider of analytics software that helps communications service providers (CSPs) deliver better customer experiences and drive new revenue opportunities. The company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Today's acquisition also complements the IBM MobileFirst Analytics portfolio, which is designed to enhance the way organizations analyze mobile device usage to provide exceptional customer experiences.

Using The Now Factory's software, CSPs can gain real-time insights into their customers by analyzing massive quantities of network and business data. With this type of insight, CSPs can provide an enhanced quality of service to their customers by better managing negative experiences and network outages.

The demand for this type of software is being driven by the explosion of growth in the volume of real-time data that is being produced by mobile devices and the strain it is putting on mobile networks to collect and process events instantly, monitor their performance, and understand the impact of customer interaction.

According to analyst and research firm Informa Telecoms and Media - by 2016, the average mobile phone subscriber will use 6.5 times as much video, 10 times as much gaming data, and 8 times as much content for social media and music than they currently consume.

In addition to its ability to detect and resolve issues, The Now Factory's software helps CSPs better understand how a subscriber interacts with cloud-based services, such as mobile applications. For example, a CSP can use The Now Factory's software to analyze customer usage of 3G and 4G LTE data services and identify high volume pre-paid subscribers. This can result in a targeted campaign to convert high volume pre-paid subscribers into post-paid accounts.

"The Now Factory's innovative solutions are all about enabling quick insights for better business results in the highly competitive telecommunications landscape," said Tom Morrisroe, CEO, The Now Factory. "As part of IBM, we can now extend our technologies to a broader range of clients to help them uncover new, untapped growth opportunities, and achieve tangible business value from big data and analytics."

The Now Factory enhances IBM's Big Data Platform to bring a new class of analytics solutions to the market. For example, IBM InfoSphere Streams augments The Now Factory data mediation and analytics, and extends the range of use cases to include more real-time analytics on data in motion. The Now Factory's clients can also now access IBM PureData System for Analytics and Hadoop-based IBM InfoSphere BigInsights for exploration and deep analysis of subscriber and network data.

"Today's announcement is part of IBM's strategy to continually establish leadership in the era of big data and capitalize on the opportunity to analyze data in real time," said Bob Picciano, General Manager, Information Management, IBM Software Group. "The Now Factory's software enhances IBM's Big Data and Analytics portfolio by improving the speed, development and implementation of big data solutions, and gives communications service providers the ability to better service their customers."

Today's news is part of IBM's long term strategy to support strong expected growth in big data and analytics, an area of IBM's business that is expected to reach $20 billion in revenue by 2015. IBM has established the world's deepest portfolio of Big Data and Analytics technologies and industry expertise, including almost 9,000 dedicated business analytics and optimization consultants, over 500 patents and 400 researchers. IBM continues to expand its ecosystem, which consists of more than 27,000 IBM business partners – and has established nine global analytics solution centers in Berlin, Beijing, London, New York, Ohio, Tokyo, Washington and Zurich.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013. Following close of the acquisition, The Now Factory will become part of IBM's Software Group.

About IBM Big Data and Analytics
Each day we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated by a variety of sources -- from climate information, to posts on social media sites, and from purchase transaction records to healthcare medical images. At IBM we believe that big data and analytics are a catalyst to help clients become more competitive and drive growth. IBM is helping clients harness this big data to uncover valuable insights, and transform their business. IBM has established the world's deepest and broadest portfolio of big data technologies and solutions, spanning services, software, research and hardware. For more information about IBM and big data and analytics, visit http:www.ibmbigdatahub.com Follow IBM and big data on Twitter @IBMbigdata and #ibmbigdata.

For additional information about this news, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/thenowfactory/

For additional information about IBM's big data initiatives, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/big-data/us/en/

For additional information about IBM MobileFirst, visit: http://www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/us/en/

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SOURCE IBM