IBM’s digital agency buys Bluewolf to accelerate its strategic alliance with SalesForce
IBM has made a large scale acquisition into the agency landscape with the purchase of digital consultancy Bluewolf in a deal rumoured to be worth $200m as it seeks to further its strategic alliance with marketing cloud provider SalesForce.
IBM claims the purchase will enable it to further its expertise in the use of SalesForce’s suite of tools, which are projected to generate $111bn a year in services revenue, given Bluewolf’s 15 years of experience in using its tools for an array of clients including Stanley Black & Decker, rolls Royce and Vodafone.
Upon completion of this transaction, Bluewolf will join with the existing design, analytics and mobile capabilities of IBM Interactive Experience (iX) – the agency it set up in February post the purchase of German digital agency Aperto.
Matt Candy, IBM iX VP, and leader of its European business, said: “Bluewolf was one of the first to implement SalesForce for a list of clients, and will act as the engine for our SalesForce business.”
Bluewolf is one of Salesforce’s longest standing consulting partners, with 12 global offices and more than 500 employees in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, but unconfirmed reports have valued the deal at $200m, although it counts as the latest deal in a purchase trail that intensified in early February when it purchased three outfits in a week.
IBM purchased Aperto, ecx.io Resource/Ammirati during the period with otherwise enterprise software providers including with Adobe, Sitecore, and SAP hybris. This was on top of its earlier purchase The Weather Company, which it plans to fuse with its cognitive and analytics platform.