On an acquisition spree, IBM announced Monday that Netezza, a data warehousing and analytics company, will be the latest addition to its basket for $1.7 billion cash. The deal values Netezza at $27 per share, 9.8% premium on Friday’s closing price. Netezza will expand IBM’s business analytics initiatives to help clients gain faster insights into their business information, with increased performance for cheaper.

Marlborough, MA based Netezza Corporation (NYSE: NZ) is the global leader in data warehouse, analytic and monitoring appliances that simplify high-performance analytics across an extended enterprise. Netezza’s technology enables organizations to process enormous amounts of captured data at exceptional speed, providing a significant competitive and operational advantage in today’s data-intensive industries, including digital media, energy, financial services, government, health and life sciences, retail and telecommunications. The company has about 500 employees and lists 30+ companies in its client roster, including Neiman Marcus, eHarmony, Time Warner, Estee Lauder, BCBC-Ma, United Health group, etc among its clients. The British TV, Internet and phone service provider Virgin Media Inc. uses the technology across its product marketing, revenue assurance and credit services departments to quickly assess and respond to impacts of price changes or tariffs on sales. NYSE Euronext has cut the time it takes to load and extract massive amounts of historical data so it can run analytic queries more securely and efficiently, while reducing runtimes from hours to seconds.

The rate and pace of data is accelerating the IT opportunity around information and analytics. A recent study revealed that 83% of CIO’s identified analytics as a top priority. The combined strengths of IBM and Netezza are a key differentiator at a time when organizations of all sizes are looking to gain more insight from their business information.

This deal comes in just 5 days after IBM purchased OpenPages. In the last 4 years, IBM has made 23 analytics-related acquisitions totaling $12 B. Analytics accounted for $9 B of IBM’s $95.8 B revenues in 2009. IBM said in May that it planned to spend about $20 B in acquisitions through 2015 to expand its software and services business.

The acquisition, which is subject to Netezza shareholder approval, applicable regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.

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International Business Machines (IBM) is a computer, technology, and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York. IBM is the world’s fourth largest technology company and the second most valuable global brand. With 400,000 employees worldwide, IBM is second largest and the second most profitable information technology and services employer in the world according to the Forbes 2000 list with sales over $100 billion.