IBM acquires database company Cloudant

Washington Post

By Mohana Ravindranath

IBM on Monday announced an agreement to acquire Cloudant, a Boston-based tech company providing Internet-based database services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cloudant’s technology — which helps developers create mobile and Web apps — involves elements of big data, cloud, and mobile computing, Sean Poulley, vice president of IBM’s database and warehousing division, said in a statement. It enables “clients to rapidly deliver an entirely new level of innovative, engaging and data-rich apps to the marketplace.”

Cloudant is backed by investments from In-Q-Tel, an Arlington-based nonprofit venture fund supporting the U.S. intelligence community.

The Cloudant acquisition is the latest of several cloud-related moves IBM has made recently — in January, it announced it was committing $1.2 billion toward expanding its cloud services. Since 2007, IBM has invested more than $7.5 billion in 15 cloud-related acquisitions, including SoftLayer, a Dallas-based cloud computing infrastructure company IBM acquired for $2 billion in July. Cloudant will run on SoftLayer’s software platform.

“Cloudant’s decision to join IBM highlights that the next wave of enterprise technology innovation has moved beyond infrastructure and is now happening at the data layer,” Cloudant chief executive Derek Shoettle said in a statement.