New York: International Business Machines (IBM), the world's biggest computer-services provider, will help some startup software companies develop their technology as it seeks to identify potential partners or acquisition targets.
Chosen startups will have access to IBM's software and research laboratories, the Armonk, New York-based company said yesterday in a statement. IBM introduced the program at a forum in Bangalore, India.
To qualify, companies must be closely held, less than three years old and make software that could be part of IBM's Smarter Planet program, which maintains that anything can be digitally monitored to be made more efficient. The requirements fit into IBM's mergers and acquisition plan, said Jim Corgel, who heads the company's developer relations.
"When the time is right, they might become part of IBM," Corgel said. The company has bought about 75 of the 1,500 startups it has worked with, he said.
Since becoming IBM's chief executive officer eight years ago, Sam Palmisano has spent more than $20 billion on 100 acquisitions, most of them software companies valued at less than $1 billion.
Even if the startups aren't acquired by IBM, they may become a partner of the company, said Steve White, who heads software partnerships for research firm IDC in Toronto.
"This is a way to pick up some new evolving partners, potentially the big partners of the future," White said.
