IBM has agreed to acquire Confluent, Inc. for $11 billion in an all‑cash transaction, valuing the data‑streaming company at $31 per share. The deal, which is expected to close by mid‑2026, represents a 6.7‑times trailing‑revenue multiple based on Confluent’s last twelve months of revenue of roughly $1.1 billion.
The acquisition is a cornerstone of IBM’s strategy to build a “smart data platform” that powers generative and agentic artificial‑intelligence workloads across hybrid‑cloud environments. Confluent’s real‑time streaming platform is already deployed by more than 6,500 enterprise customers, including over 40 % of the Fortune 500, giving IBM immediate access to a broad, high‑value customer base.
Confluent’s financial trajectory has been improving: its trailing revenue grew 21.6 % to $1.1 billion, and the company moved from an EBITDA loss of $397 million in the prior fiscal year to a positive $109 million in the most recent twelve months. The 6.7‑times multiple reflects both the company’s growth momentum and the premium IBM is willing to pay for the strategic fit.
IBM expects the transaction to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA in the first full year after closing and to boost free cash flow in the second year. The deal positions IBM against cloud leaders such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and follows the recent acquisition of HashiCorp, underscoring a broader consolidation trend in AI‑enabled data infrastructure.
Arvind Krishna, IBM’s chairman, president, and CEO, said the partnership will “enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs.” Jay Kreps, Confluent’s CEO, added that the company is “excited to join IBM and accelerate our strategy with IBM’s go‑to‑market expertise, global scale and extensive portfolio.”
Confluent’s platform, built on Apache Kafka, differentiates itself with features such as Streaming Agents that feed real‑time data directly into AI models. The acquisition gives IBM a competitive edge in delivering end‑to‑end AI solutions, from data ingestion to model deployment, and strengthens its position in the rapidly expanding market for AI‑driven data services.
Overall, IBM’s purchase of Confluent signals a decisive shift toward AI‑centric data infrastructure, promising new revenue streams and deeper integration of IBM’s hybrid‑cloud offerings with cutting‑edge real‑time data capabilities.
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