IBM Completes Acquisition of ILOG

IBM has announced the completion of its approximately $340 million tender offer for the shares of ILOG. The tender offer, announced in July of last year, was finalized after IBM acquired all outstanding stock in ILOG and satisfied the other conditions of the offer.

The ILOG Business Rule Management System (BRMS), Optimization, Visualization, and Supply Chain Management (SCM) portfolios will build upon IBM software and business process management leadership across a broad range of applications and environments.

ILOG technology will augment the IBM software platform, and the addition of BRMS will provide another dimension of leadership for the IBM BPM portfolio. This includes improved rules and business optimization for WebSphere and Information Management offerings; better visualization for WebSphere, Lotus, and Tivoli products and solutions; as well as enhanced optimization and efficient supply chain management assets for planning and scheduling within a service-oriented architecture.

The ILOG BRMS products help businesses increase the agility of their decision-making by letting them adapt and respond dynamically. Based on applied mathematics and computer science, the ILOG optimization products allow enterprises to cope with many operating constraints. The software enables them to transform business objectives, resources, and operational constraints into best possible action plans and schedules to enhance service, revenue, and profits.

ILOG Visualization enhances an organization's collaboration, role-based, and decision-making capabilities by building interactive user interfaces through diagrams, maps, schedules, charts, and editors. ILOG Supply Chain Management solutions, which include Network Design, Inventory Optimization, Production Planning and Scheduling, provide an opportunity for leaner manufacturing and green supply chain management.

ILOG will become part of the IBM WebSphere software portfolio. Consistent with IBM's software strategy, ILOG clients' and partners' investments in existing IBM and ILOG technologies will be preserved, allowing customers to take advantage of the broader set of capabilities without the need to replace existing systems.

"As a leader in business rules, optimization, visualization, and supply chain management software, we are pleased to welcome the ILOG customers and the ILOG employees to the WebSphere family," says Tom Rosamilia, general manager, IBM WebSphere Software. "The acquisition of ILOG is an important element within our overall SOA strategy, and the key addition of the ILOG BRMS to IBM's BPM portfolio will help IBM clients to become more dynamic. ILOG brings significant new capabilities to IBM that will provide agile, flexible applications for real-time response and confident decision-making."