IBM to Acquire Confluent

Summary

We are excited to announce that Confluent has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by IBM. After the transaction is closed (subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals), together, IBM and Confluent will aim to provide a platform that unifies the world’s largest enterprises, unlocking data for cloud/microservices, accelerating time-to-value, and building the real-time data foundation required to scale AI across every organization. The below email was shared earlier today from Jay Kreps, CEO and Co-Founder of Confluent to our Confluent team. We want to thank our team members for their continued hard work and dedication that defined a new category of data streaming and paved the way for this next chapter. We look forward to their ongoing contributions as a part of IBM after the transaction closes. For more information, please see the announcement press release (click to view).Confluent Team, I’m excited to share that a few moments ago, we announced that Confluent has signed an agreement to be acquired by IBM in an all cash deal for $31.00 per share. Confluent will continue to operate as a distinct brand and business within IBM post-close.Later this morning, December 8, at 9 a.m. PT and again in the evening at 7 p.m. PT, we will have a Company All Hands meeting, where I will share details about this announcement and answer your questions, alongside the rest of the executive team. In the meantime, we have a FAQ in the wiki with some more details. I know this may be surprising so I wanted to take the time to walk you through why this is the best path for Confluent.In the letter I wrote at our IPO in 2021, I said that “There is a saying that a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing--Confluent is a company that knows a very big thing” and that rings true for me today. Data is at the heart of what companies need to do to harness AI, modernize their operations, and build the next generation of applications; and Confluent i...