IBM to acquire Confluent for $11 billion as tech giant aims to expand AI footprint — Details here

IBM has announced on Monday, 8 December that it will acquire Confluent in a $11 billion deal, aiming to expand its footprint in Artificial Intelligence footprint, the tech giant said in a press release.

“IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster,” said IBM chief Arvind Krishna in the official statement.

“With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI,” CEO Krishna added in the statement.

Details of the deal

IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Confluent. This represents an enterprise value of $11 billion. Confluent will be acquired with available cash on hand, according to a release.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the middle of 2026. The deal will bolster IBM's AI offerings as it expects global data growth to more than double by 2028, the tech giant said.

The board of directors of IBM and the board of directors and independent special committee of Confluent have each approved the transaction. The acquisition is subject to approval by Confluent shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Share market reacts to the development

Confluent, whose primary product is the data streaming platform Apache Kafka, has more than 6,500 clients across major industries and works with Anthropic, Amazon’s AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft, Snowflake and others.

It also handles more than 40% of the Fortune 500 companies, according to the official release.

Following the announcement, Confluent's stock soared around 29% in premarket trading on Monday. The company's shares closed at $23.14 on Friday.

On the other hand, IBM is one of the leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. The company has clients across more than 175 countries.

IBM stock also gained a little above 2% to settle at $314.77 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).