Friday, February 8, 2008

IBM completes $5 billion Cognos acquisition, announces exciting new Information On Demand strategy

IBM (NYSE: IBM) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. IBM made several key announcements today regarding the completion of $5 billion Cognos acquisition:

An array of new and enhanced joint IBM-Cognos solutions, products and services from across the company that enable organizations of all sizes to gain better insights from their data, improve decision-making, and optimize business performance, including:
--  10 new and enhanced IBM solutions for banking, retail, healthcare,
government, life sciences and manufacturing industries.
-- Six pre-integrated IBM-Cognos product offerings that enable companies
to use business intelligence to improve overall business performance.
-- Information on Demand Infrastructure Services to help clients plan,
design and deploy a resilient enterprise data, storage and content
management environment.

IBM also announced a new capability called IBM Dashboard Accelerator software using Cognos "builder" that will help companies extract business data and present it in new, different and more meaningful contexts through their IBM WebSphere Portal applications.

Further, IBM re-iterated the importance of Cognos acquisition on Future Earnings per Share growth. The acquisition supports IBM's objective for earnings-per-share growth through 2010.

In a letter to IBM business partners, Ambuj Goyal, General Manager of Information Management Software, wrote:

"I am very pleased to announce that IBM has completed the acquisition of Cognos. Cognos will be integrated into the IBM Software Group as part of the Information Management division where the synergies and market messages are most closely aligned. The addition of Cognos complements IBM Information On Demand by unlocking the business value of information for competitive advantage, and further builds on leadership by IBM in delivering SOA solutions.

I am very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for the combined IBM and Cognos organization. With our collective strengths, we look forward to accelerating innovation, creating value, and driving business success.

Cognos maintains a vibrant and growing Business Partner community, with deep skills, industry knowledge, and a roster of proven, scaleable solutions built on the Cognos technology. The Cognos product portfolio will continue to deliver significant value to IBM and our customers..."

Bottomline:

IBM spent five times Cognos annual revenue of about $1 billion to acquire Cognos at $5 billion. Without counting the integration, distribution and operational efficiencies that IBM provides, the Cognos acquisition will add at least $1 billion in additional revenue in 2008. Add to this $1 billion, the actual benefits that an IBM acquisition will provide Cognos customers, joint IBM and Cognos customers, and future customers of Information On Demand solutions. IBM has quite possibly found the diamond that could potentially generate $2 billion to $4 billion in additional revenue in the next three to five years if the global market for on demand information expands. Cognos could be perhaps IBM's dark horse over the next several years.

Invest in the Innovation Index Fund

We launched the new Innovation Index Fund in December, 2007 that invests in the Innovation Index including IBM and returned 66% in 2007, and 174% in the previous five years. If you want to learn more about the Innovation Index Fund, fill out your contact information at the bottom of this form: http://www.innovationindexgroup.com/invest.html

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Invest in the brand new Innovation Index Fund
Introducing The Innovation Index Fund - Invest into The Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.

References:

IBM Press Releases and Business Partner Communication


No comments:

Post a Comment