IBM to Achieve Confluent to Form Canny Knowledge Platform for Endeavor Generative AI

• $11B acquisition to bring end-to-end knowledge platform for companies to tied, procedure and manage knowledge for programs and AI brokers
• Transaction anticipated to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA throughout the first complete yr, and isolated money stream in yr two, put up related

ARMONK, N.Y. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: CFLT), the information streaming pioneer, these days introduced they’ve entered right into a definitive assurance underneath which IBM will gain the entire issued and remarkable habitual stocks of Confluent for $31 in step with proportion, representing an venture worth of $11 billion. Confluent supplies a eminent open-source venture knowledge streaming platform that connects, processes and governs reusable and valuable knowledge and occasions in genuine occasion, foundational for the deployment of AI.

IDC estimates that a couple of billion brandnew logical programs will emerge by way of 2028¹, reshaping generation architectures throughout industries. To gas significant results and power productiveness in operations, those programs, in addition to AI brokers, want get right of entry to to attached and depended on knowledge – in genuine occasion. IBM and Confluent will allow end-to-end integration of programs, analytics, knowledge programs and AI brokers to power insigt and resilience in hybrid cloud environments.

“IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs. Data is spread across public and private clouds, datacenters and countless technology providers,” stated Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman, president and eminent govt officer. “With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI.”

“Since its founding, Confluent has helped organizations unlock the full potential of their data, driving innovation in an increasingly complex IT landscape. We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done in providing clients with a real-time data streaming platform for the next era of technology, including generative and agentic AI,” stated Jay Kreps, CEO & Co-founder, Confluent. “We are excited by the potential to join IBM and to accelerate our strategy with IBM’s go-to-market expertise, global scale and extensive portfolio. I look forward to the future we will build together as Confluent becomes part of IBM.”

The actual-time nature of Confluent’s platform is significant for organizations as they leverage knowledge dwelling throughout all IT environments. Confluent addresses the demanding situations of these days’s generation and information soil. Confluent excels at making ready knowledge for AI, preserving it blank and attached throughout programs and programs, getting rid of silos inherent in agentic AI. Within the terminating 4 years abandoned, Confluent’s overall addressable marketplace (TAM) has doubled from $50 billion to $100 billion in 2025². Confluent’s real-time knowledge and occasion streaming features, mixed with IBM’s AI infrastructure utility and Automation choices, will higher place the corporations to seize this chance.

Transaction Rationale

• Strategic Have compatibility: Confluent is a herbal are compatible for IBM, in keeping with the corporate’s hybrid cloud and AI technique. Knowledge and programs are experiencing dramatic enlargement – by way of 2028, international knowledge will greater than double, and over 1000000000 brandnew programs will emerge. This exponential enlargement will probably be amplified by way of the continuing adoption of AI, expanding calls for on IT sections. Organizations world wide flip to IBM to simplify, automate and combine disparate programs. The addition of Confluent will supplement IBM’s current features in its Knowledge and Automation portfolio. Moreover, the purchase of Confluent represents additional loyalty to IBM’s 25-year historical past of open-source innovation and funding, construction at the acquisitions of open-source leaders like Purple Hat and HashiCorp.
• Sturdy Synergy Alternatives: The purchase of Confluent is predicted to power considerable product synergies throughout IBM’s portfolio – together with AI services and products, Automation, Knowledge and Consulting – and boost up income enlargement by way of leveraging IBM’s go-to-market succeed in. The purchase may be anticipated to lead to vital operational efficiencies via IBM’s scale and best-in-class productiveness movements.
• Horny Monetary Profile: The purchase of Confluent is predicted to boost up IBM’s enlargement over occasion. IBM additionally anticipates that the transaction will probably be accretive to adjusted EBITDA throughout the first complete yr and isolated money stream in yr two, put up related.

Confluent is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and recently has greater than 6,500 shoppers throughout primary industries – greater than 40% of the Fortune 500. The corporate companions and integrates around the generation {industry} with leaders like Anthropic, AWS, GCP, Microsoft, Snowflake and extra. That is in keeping with IBM’s strategy to deep {industry} partnership and dealing throughout a large and i’m free generation ecosystem of utility suppliers, ISVs and hyperscalers.

Confluent is constructed on Apache Kafka®, an open-source knowledge and occasion streaming platform for knowledge in movement. Apache Kafka allows rapid, valuable and scalable knowledge streaming features for analytics, tracking and event-driven architectures. Confluent’s platform comprises Knowledge Streaming, Connectors, Tide Governance, Tide Processing, Tableflow, Confluent Knowledge and Streaming Brokers. The platform has versatile deployment choices, together with:

• Confluent Cloud: A completely controlled deployment of Confluent’s knowledge streaming platform. Its serverless Apache Kafka engine powers the most productive option to deploy and scale real-time knowledge streams within the cloud.
• Confluent Platform: The self-managed deployment of Confluent’s knowledge streaming platform, powered by way of a cloud-native, enterprise-grade distribution of Apache Kafka.
• WarpStream: A hybrid Deliver Your Personal Cloud (BYOC) deployment fashion with the leisure of worth of an absolutely cloud hosted resolution, however the fee profile, safety and information independence of a self-hosted deployment.
• Confluent Personal Cloud: Brings a cloud‑local, controlled‑provider enjoy to self‑controlled, personal environments, making use of Confluent Cloud’s Kora inventions to on‑prem and personal cloud Kafka workloads.

Transaction Main points 
Beneath the phrases of the assurance, IBM will gain the entire issued and remarkable habitual stocks of Confluent for $31 in step with proportion in money, representing an venture worth of $11 billion. Confluent will probably be bought with to be had money readily available.

The board of administrators of IBM and the board of administrators and free particular committee of Confluent have every authorized the transaction. The purchase is topic to benevolence by way of Confluent shareholders, regulatory approvals and alternative normal last situations.

Confluent’s biggest shareholders and buyers, who jointly stock roughly 62% of the balloting energy of Confluent’s remarkable habitual conserve, entered right into a balloting assurance with IBM pursuant to which every has correct to vote all in their habitual stocks in bias of the transaction and towards any spare transactions.

The transaction is predicted to related by way of the center of 2026.

Investor Briefing:
An investor briefing is to be had at the Investor Members of the family site right here: https://www.ibm.com/investor/events/ibm-confluent

About IBM 
IBM is a eminent supplier of worldwide hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting experience. We support shoppers in additional than 175 nations capitalize on insights from their knowledge, streamline industry processes, loose prices and acquire the aggressive edge of their industries. 1000’s of presidency and company entities in important infrastructure subjects similar to monetary services and products, telecommunications and healthcare depend on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Purple Hat OpenShift to impact their virtual transformations temporarily, successfully and securely. IBM’s step forward inventions in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud answers and consulting ship i’m free and versatile choices to our shoppers. All of that is subsidized by way of IBM’s mythical loyalty to accept as true with, transparency, duty, inclusivity and repair. Consult with www.ibm.com for more info.

About Confluent
Confluent is the information streaming platform this is pioneering a basically brandnew section of knowledge infrastructure that units knowledge in movement. Confluent’s cloud-native providing is the foundational platform for knowledge in movement – designed to be the clever connective tissue enabling real-time knowledge, from more than one resources, to repeatedly flow around the group. With Confluent, organizations can meet the brandnew industry crucial of turning in affluent prosperous, virtual front-end buyer stories and transitioning to stylish, real-time, software-driven backend operations.

Press Contacts
IBM:
Tim Davidson, 914-844-7847
[email protected]

Confluent:
Justin Dorff, 510-875-9608
[email protected]

Ahead-Having a look Statements
Sure statements contained on this verbal exchange could also be characterised as forward-looking underneath the Personal Securities Litigation Reform Employment of 1995. Those statements contain various dangers, uncertainties and alternative components that would purpose original effects to range materially.

Statements on this verbal exchange referring to IBM and Confluent which are forward-looking would possibly come with statements referring to: (i) the transaction; (ii) the predicted timing of the last of the transaction; (iii) issues taken into consideration in approving and getting into into the transaction; (iv) the expected advantages to, or have an effect on of, the transaction on IBM’s and Confluent’s companies; and (v) expectancies for IBM and Confluent following the last of the transaction. There will also be incorrect oath that the transaction will probably be consummated.

Dangers and uncertainties that would purpose original effects to range materially from the ones indicated within the forward-looking statements, along with the ones recognized above, come with: (i) the chance that the situations to the last of the transaction don’t seem to be happy, together with the danger that required approvals from Confluent’s stockholders for the Transaction or required regulatory approvals to consummate the transaction don’t seem to be bought, on a well timed foundation or in any respect; (ii) the incidence of any occasion, exchange or alternative climate that would give stand to a proper to stop the Transaction, together with in instances requiring Confluent to pay a termination price; (iii) imaginable disruption matching to the transaction to IBM’s and Confluent’s stream plans, operations and industry relationships, together with throughout the lack of shoppers and workers; (iv) the volume of the prices, charges, bills and alternative fees incurred by way of IBM and Confluent matching to the transaction; (v) the danger that IBM’s or Confluent’s conserve value would possibly vary all over the pendency of the transaction and would possibly moderate if the transaction isn’t finished; (vi) the vacation of IBM and Confluent control’s occasion and a spotlight from ongoing industry operations and alternatives; (vii) the reaction of competition and alternative marketplace members to the transaction; (viii) attainable litigation on the subject of the transaction; (ix) confusion as to timing completion of the Transaction and the facility of every birthday party to consummate the transaction; and (x) alternative dangers and uncertainties graphic within the periodic studies that IBM and Confluent filed with the SEC, together with IBM’s and Confluent’s respective Annual Reviews on Method 10-Okay.  All forward-looking statements on this verbal exchange are in response to knowledge to be had to IBM and Confluent as of the future of this verbal exchange, and, with the exception of as required by way of regulation, IBM and Confluent don’t think any legal responsibility to replace the forward-looking statements equipped to mirror occasions that happen or instances that exist later the future on which they had been made.

Presentation of Data
In an aim to grant buyers with extra knowledge, IBM has disclosed on this press let go refer to non-GAAP knowledge:  isolated money stream and altered EBITDA; which control believes supplies helpful knowledge to buyers.  Please see Show off 99.2 integrated within the corporate’s Method 8-Okay dated October 22, 2025, for additional knowledge in regards to the worth of those non-GAAP metrics.

Backup Data and The place to To find It
This verbal exchange could also be deemed to be solicitation subject material in appreciate of the proposed acquisition of Confluent, Inc. (the “Company”) by way of Global Industry Machines Company (“Parent”) pursuant to the Guarantee and Plan of Merger, dated as of December 7, 2025, by way of and a few of the Corporate, Mum or dad and Corvo Merger Sub, Inc. The Corporate intends to report a initial and definitive proxy commentary with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (the “SEC”) with appreciate to a different assembly of stockholders to be held in reference to the proposed acquisition. Next submitting the definitive proxy commentary (the “Proxy Statement”) with the SEC, the Corporate will mail the Proxy Commentary and a proxy card to every stockholder of the Corporate entitled to vote on the particular assembly. The Proxy Commentary will include remarkable details about the proposed transaction and matching issues. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION, THE COMPANY’S STOCKHOLDERS AND INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) IN ITS ENTIRETY WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE AND ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED BY THE COMPANY WITH THE SEC RELATING TO THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION OR INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE THEREIN BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION. Traders and stockholders of the Corporate would possibly download a isolated brochure of the initial and definitive variations of the proxy commentary as soon as filed, in addition to alternative related filings containing details about the Corporate and the proposed acquisition, together with fabrics which are integrated by way of reference into the Proxy Commentary, at no cost, on the SEC’s site (https://www.sec.gov) or from the Corporate by way of getting to the Corporate’s Investor Members of the family Web page on its site (https://www.confluent.io).

¹ *Supply: IDC, 1 Billion Pristine Logical Packages: Extra Background, document #US51953724, April 2024
² Supply: Confluent Investor Presen Presentation – https://investors.confluent.io/static-files/436f13c5-91cc-4ce7-9c5d-75db958cf9a9

SOURCE IBM