IBM is acquiring Sterling Commerce from AT&T for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. Sterling Commerce applications streamline the commerce lifecycle from selling to fulfillment to payments. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2010.

IBM says the acquisition of Sterling will expand its ability to help organizations connect and communicate with customers, partners and suppliers both on-premise or through cloud computing delivery models.More than 18,000 customers use Sterling Commerce offerings.

This year, IBM bought up cloud computing company Cast Iron, health care data management firm Initiate and Intelliden. Last year, IBM acquired six companies, including Guardium, RedPill Solutions, SPSS, Ounce Labs, Exeros and Outblaze.

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• IBM

Company: IBM

Website: ibm.com

Launch Date: February 13, 1896

IPO: NYSE:IBM

IBM, acronym for International Business Machines, is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.

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