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IBM’s Db2 WebQuery Development Partner Sold

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Bill Langston

Information Builders, Inc. (IBI), the company that IBM has partnered with since 2007 to develop, support, and market IBM DB2 WebQuery, is being acquired by Tibco Software.¹ Tibco Software is a big data and analytics software company based in Palo Alto, California. They are privately owned by Vista Equity Partners. To date, we have not found any statements from IBM, IBI, or Tibco regarding how this change in ownership will effect IBM DB2 Web Query.

Since its founding in 1997, Tibco Software primarily pursued an aggressive growth through acquisition strategy.² The pace of acquisitions has accelerated under Vista Equity Partners. We believe IBI is at least the tenth company acquired by Tibco Software in the past six years. Nonetheless, as far as we can tell, Tibco Software has never developed or supported products that run on IBM i.

When companies acquire other companies, some degree of consolidation usually happens—especially with companies that have overlapping products and development managers. In an article written for ZDNet, Boris Evelson of Forrester states, “There are tons, literally tons, of overlapping products between the two companies.”³

In a lengthy but noteworthy interview with CRN following the announcement of the acquisition, Tibco CEO Dan Streetman spoke of IBI’s partner network, but made no mention of IBM.⁴

References:

1. “TIBCO Announces Agreement to Acquire Information Builders, Inc.” TIPCO, October 22, 2020, https://www.tibco.com/press-releases/2020/tibco-announces-agreement-to-acquire-information-builders.
   
   
2. “TIPCO Software.” Wikipedia, November 6, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIBCO_Software.
   
   
3. Evelson, Boris. “TIBCO's acquisition of information builders signals more BI market consolidation.” ZDNet, October 27, 2020, https://www.zdnet.com/article/tibcos-acquisition-of-information-builders-signals-more-bi-market-consolidation/.
   
   
4. Whiting, Rick. “Tibco CEO Dan Streetman On Information Builders Acquisition, Opportunities For Partners.” CRN, October 29, 2020, https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/tibco-ceo-dan-streetman-on-information-builders-acquisition-opportunities-for-partners/1.

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