IBM will
have a fight on its hands as it attempts to tie up its
proposed
purchase of content management provider
FileNet
for $1.6bn in cash,
Gartner
predicted today.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006, subject to
shareholder and regulatory approval.
But Gartner expects that Big Blue will have to fend off at least one
counteroffer for FileNet, which has a particularly strong presence in the
banking, insurance and government vertical markets.
"We expect that the transaction between IBM and FileNet will take place, but
consider it likely that competing bids from other vendors will be proffered
before the deal is completed," said the analyst report.
"After it closes we believe this acquisition will consolidate the enterprise
content management market, turning the high-end segment of the market into a
head-to-head between
EMC and IBM."
The study goes on to assert that the consolidation of the traditional
enterprise content management market is only one of several drivers behind this
acquisition.
"IBM has cited market demands for compliance solutions as another reason for
purchasing FileNet. But Gartner does not believe that FileNet will add
significant compliance capabilities that IBM did not already have," said the
report.
However, Gartner noted that FileNet has developed its offerings over the past
five years to embrace content-centric business process management (BPM),
providing its own BPM capabilities. FileNet also has a strong human-to-human
capability.
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