IBM sells weather forecasting platform business The Weather Company to private equity firm Francisco Partners
IBM has announced the transfer of The Weather Company, a weather forecasting platform enterprise acquired in 2016 from a consortium formed by Blackstone Group, Bain Capital, and NBCUniversal, to the private equity firm Francisco Partners.
However, IBM has remained reticent regarding the transactional sum involved in the sale of The Weather Company. Consequently, it’s indeterminate whether the price surpasses the $2.5 billion from their initial acquisition or is offered at a discounted rate.
The operational facets of The Weather Company comprise The Weather Channel App and the Weather.com web service. They boast a monthly user engagement of approximately 415 million, having cultivated partnerships with over 2,000 data clientele. Predominantly, these entities utilize weather forecasting, storm monitoring systems, and data solutions tailored for broadcasting, media, aviation, advertising, and pertinent industry integrations.
A 2 nm wafer fabricated at IBM Research’s Albany facility. The wafer contains hundreds of individual chips. Courtesy of IBM
Subsequent to its transition to Francisco Partners, The Weather Company is slated for metamorphosis from primarily providing weather data operations. The prospective vision entails harnessing weather forecasting content to facilitate bespoke application services for clients.
In parallel, IBM will retain The Weather Company’s sustainable software ventures, inclusive of the Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS). This assists collaborative clientele in collating, orchestrating, quantifying, and crafting ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) related reports, thereby guiding enterprises in devising operation decisions compliant with governmental regulations.
Moreover, the acquisition of The Weather Company’s platform by Francisco Partners trails their recent $6.5 billion purchase of the cloud application performance monitoring platform, New Relic. They are also strategizing to acquire the media editing software entity, Avid Technology.
It’s noteworthy that just in July, Francisco Partners collaborated with asset management firm TPG to procure the cloud application performance platform, New Relic, for $6.5 billion, and is concurrently in the bidding process for Avid Technology.
