IBM has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Confluent in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $11 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will acquire all outstanding shares of Confluent for $31 per share. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, as well as Confluent’s independent special committee, and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and approval by Confluent shareholders. Stockholders representing approximately 62% of Confluent’s voting power have entered into voting agreements in support of the transaction, which is expected to close by mid-2026.
IBM expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA within the first full year following closing and to contribute to free cash flow in the second year. The transaction will be funded using IBM’s available cash on hand. Upon completion, Confluent’s real-time data streaming platform will be integrated into IBM’s Data and Automation portfolio, while continuing to support deployments across public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises environments. The acquisition adds to IBM’s recent activity in infrastructure and open-source software, following prior transactions involving Red Hat and HashiCorp.
