IBM and ILOG announced that they have signed an agreement regarding a proposed acquisition by IBM of ILOG to be implemented by way of concurrent cash public tender offers in both France and the United States. The cash tender offer will be at a price of €10 per ordinary share. This will amount to an aggregate purchase price of approximately €215 million or approximately $US340. This price represents a premium of approximately 56 percent compared to ILOG's one month average of closing share prices prior to July 28, 2008, and a 37 percent premium to the closing price of Friday, July 25.
With a difficult economic context that has reduced the market value for many technological companies, IBM continues to acquire smaller companies that can complement its product portfolio. After the stok market euphoria of year 2000, the stock price of ILOG has evolved laterally these recent years, making the decision of selling itself less difficult. ILOG will provide to IBM interesting technology for business rule management systems (BRMS) and rule engines for managing business change and process improvement. It has also a nice offering in the visualization market with products that adds sophisticated displays to Java, C++, and .NET applications, for the desktop and rich internet applications. The deal will provide ILOG technology with a better visibility and bigger sales channels.
http://www.ilog.com/corporate/releases/us/080728_ibm.cfm
