There was a lot on IBM's plate in 2007--some 12 acquisitions company officials said worth more than $6 billion. Among those was the deal for Consul Risk Management, which IBM closed on last January for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition was meant to bolster IBM's security portfolio by adding data governance and compliance monitoring, auditing and reporting capabilities across mainframe and distributed environments. <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/IBM-and-Consul-A-Year-of-Wedded-Bliss-in-the-Security-Space/?kc=EWKNLINF013008STR4">A year later, the integration of the two companies</A> has yielded positive results, as the company bested its expected sales goals of Consul technology by more than 200 percent.