IBM in talks to acquire Confluent for $11bn

IBM is reportedly successful precocious discussions to get Confluent, a information infrastructure company, successful a woody worthy astir $11bn, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Based successful California, Confluent operates an open-source level designed to process ample streams of real-time data, specified arsenic slope transactions and website clicks.

The institution has built a cloud-native level to unlock real-time data, serving arsenic a benignant of cardinal tense strategy that connects each applications astir unrecorded information streams. This enables businesses to respond and respond intelligently to everything happening crossed their operations.

Confluent reported subscription gross of $286m for the 3rd 4th of this twelvemonth and anticipates earning $295.5m–$296.5m successful the 4th quarter.

The company’s marketplace capitalisation stands astatine astir $8.09bn, based connected LSEG data. IBM’s valuation, meanwhile, is astir $287.84bn.

In October 2025, Reuters reported that Confluent was considering a imaginable merchantability and had engaged an concern slope to negociate the process aft receiving involvement from imaginable buyers.

IBM has faced capitalist caution pursuing slower maturation successful its halfway unreality bundle concern reported successful October.

The involvement successful Confluent comes amid accrued request for information infrastructure companies, driven by the firm propulsion towards generative AI.

Earlier successful 2025, IBM completed the antecedently announced $6.4bn acquisition of HashiCorp successful a determination to grow its unreality bundle offerings.

In a abstracted development, IBM has been designated by the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA, ESMA) arsenic a captious accusation and connection exertion (ICT) third-party supplier nether the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

DORA is an EU regularisation intended to guarantee that fiscal entities specified arsenic banks, security companies and concern firms and their captious ICT providers tin withstand and retrieve from exertion disruptions including cyber incidents and method failures.

This designation means IBM volition beryllium taxable to nonstop supervision by these authorities arsenic a captious third-party provider.

IBM volition enactment with the ESAs to conscionable operational and method resilience requirements indispensable to Europe’s fiscal system.

For clients, this designation means IBM is required to comply with DORA’s operational resilience standards and regulatory obligations.

IBM said that it volition prosecute with European Supervisory Authorities connected DORA compliance and usage its expertise successful hazard management, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance to enactment clients successful gathering evolving regulatory requirements.