<A HREF="http://www.cio.com/article/153650/IBM_Agrees_to_Buy_Cognos_for_B">IBM has agreed to buy business intelligence software vendor Cognos</A> for around $5 billion in cash. The move follows a period of consolidation in the BI and performance management software market, where Oracle bought Hyperion, while Cartesis and ALG Software were snapped up by Business Objects, which is itself being swallowed by SAP. Cognos also bought the much smaller performance management software vendor Applix earlier this year.

The move will be a blow to IBM rival Hewlett-Packard, which offers a business intelligence and data warehousing platform built using products from Cognos.