IBM buys Ascential

is to acquire the equity of

, the Westboro, MA provider of enterprise data integration software, for $1.1 billion in cash.

Ascential Software’s ability to gather, move and enhance the quality of large amounts of data complements IBM’s WebSphere Information Integrator software, which enables its customers to centrally manage and access data that is stored across a variety of structured and unstructured sources, from both IBM and non-IBM vendors.

The combination of the two company’s offerings will help companies consolidate data from multiple ERP systems into a single system. A customer could, for example, use IBM’s WebSphere Information Integrator to access various mainframe or distributed sources for profiling and assessment, and then use Ascential Software’s data migration and transformation capabilities to integrate the data.

IBM’s acquisition is subject to Ascential Software shareholder and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2005.

Once the acquisition is completed, IBM will establish Ascential Software's operations as a business unit within IBM's Information Management software division led by General Manager Janet Perna.

It will then incorporate Ascential Software technology and solutions into IBM's Information Management and Software Group offerings.