Two acquisitions in one week

This week IBM acquired the financial and analytical IT company TruQua, which will expand its services in migrating financial platforms to SAP, and Instana, which will strengthen IBM's position in the hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence market.

Acquisition of TruQua

On Monday IBM announced the purchase of TruQua, which provides SAP solutions to Fortune 500 companies. SAP is one of the world's most popular financial accounting and reporting software used for managing and planning the financial departments of enterprises.

According to the press release, the acquisition will help IBM "to migrate its customers financial platforms to SAP", i.e. it will enable the replacement of outdated corporate systems and disparate financial processes with integrated cloud functionality that optimises processes such as cash flow, budgeting, consolidation, etc.

IBM's existing arsenal of cloud services and hybrid services will complement TruQua's offerings to provide greater opportunities for customers.

Companies expect to close the deal after meeting the usual closing conditions and regulatory approvals in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Acquisition of Instana

On Wednesday IBM announced the acquisition of Instana, an application performance management company which, depending on the client's needs, offers its services either locally or as a software as a service (SaaS) solution.

This acquisition by IBM is consistent with IBM's other efforts and the launch of "IBM Watson AIOps" earlier this year, the company's offer in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate how enterprises independently detect, diagnose and respond to IT anomalies in real time. The acquisition is also logical in light of the acquisition of Red Hat in 2018, which is the backbone of IBM's hybrid cloud business.

Instana's solutions and existing IBM service solutions will help companies reduce operational risk and reduce costs by applying AI to automate IT operations.

Given the rapid pace of companies' transition to digital business solutions, such services and solutions will be in demand and should bring IBM profit.