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International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is planning to acquire Confluent, Inc. (CFLT), a leading real-time data streaming company, for approximately $11 billion. This acquisition aims to enhance IBM’s cloud and data-services capabilities. If successful, the deal will allow IBM to modernize its streaming data and improve real-time processing and cloud-native services.
IBM’s shares have risen 33.9% over the past year, compared to an industry growth of 64.4%. Additionally, earnings estimates for 2025 have increased by 2.4% to $11.39. IBM currently holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 4.1, which is below the industry average.
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