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November 02, 2023

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Apptio is a leader in financial and operational information technology management

IBM Corp. recently completed its $4.6 billion acquisition of Apptio Inc. from Vista Equity Partners, whose founder, chairman and CEO is billionaire Robert F. Smith.

Apptio is a leader in financial and operational information technology (IT) management and optimization (FinOps) software.

IBM said the acquisition, which required regulatory approvals, gives clients the ability to derive additional value through the powerful combination of Apptio and IBM.

Technology is a competitive differentiator for today’s enterprises. Organizations are accelerating their information technology (IT) investments, spreading workloads and applications across public and private clouds, using multiple service providers. As a result, their expenses are increasing, and they need simplified, integrated and automated solutions to optimize their IT spend, improve operations, and drive greater financial returns, according to IBM.

The acquisition, IBM said, brings together the industry-leading solutions of Apptio’s FinOps offerings and IBM’s automation portfolio to give clients a “virtual command center” for managing, optimizing and automating technology spending decisions.

With artificial intelligence (AI) and foundation models top of mind for clients and partners, IBM said it will also augment its watsonx AI and data platform with Apptio’s $450 billion in anonymized IT spend data, unlocking innovation, insight and value.

“The combination of Apptio products and IBM’s IT automation portfolio will give businesses a 360-degree technology management platform they can use to optimize and automate decisions across their IT landscapes,” said Rob Thomas, senior vice president, software and chief commercial officer, IBM. “We are bringing together market-leading and best-in-class solutions to continue to reshape IT from a cost center to a true competitive advantage, powered by automation and AI.”

The close of the Apptio acquisition, he said, is one of a series of investments in IT automation by IBM over the last three years to help solve the problems facing today’s IT and business leaders. In 2020, IBM launched its IT Automation portfolio when it announced its AIOps

IBM said Apptio is an established, growing and profitable technology business management and FinOps leader with over 1,500 clients, serving more than half of the Fortune 100.

“Our journey with Apptio is a testament to Vista’s ability to create consistent outcomes that drive value for our stakeholders,” Vista Equity Partners’ Smith. “We are proud of our continued momentum, even amidst these challenged market conditions, and look forward to seeing how Apptio’s technology will bolster IBM’s IT automation and AI capabilities in the years ahead. It’s been an honor to partner with a visionary founder like Sunny [Gupta, Apptio co-founder and CEO], and we wish the entire Apptio team the best in the next phase of their growth with IBM.”

To learn more about IBM, visit ibm.com.

To learn more about Vista Equity Partners, visit vistaequitypartners.com.