Attempting to establish and expand their presence in a growing, but immature, market, two large IT vendors, IBM and Informatica Corp., moved to acquire small master data management (MDM) software providers over the past week.
Yesterday, IBM said it would acquire MDM software provider Initiate Systems , a Chicago-based vendor focusing mainly on healthcare and public sector markets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
And, late last week, data integration software provider Informatica said it acquired MDM software vendor Siperian for $130 million in cash. Nine-year-old Siperian boasts a long list of manufacturing customers, including Daimler Trucks North America, and several large pharmaceuticals providers, such as Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer.
IBM is expected to combine Initiate’s registry-style MDM software products with its IBM InfoSphere MDM server and related data management products. IBM said it would retain Initiate’s 347 employees. Though the bulk of Initiate’s 200 customers are outside of manufacturing, the company does claim some manufacturing users, including Mitsubishi Motors Australia.