- IBM said Tuesday it is selling its weather units, including WeatherChannel, Weather.com, WeatherUnderground and StormRadar.
- IBM will sell the assets to Francisco Partners, a technology-focused private equity firm, for an undisclosed sum; As part of the deal, IBM will retain access to the company’s weather data, which it uses to power some AI models it sells to enterprise clients.
- IBM is said to be exploring a sale of its weather unit, which it says serves an average of 415 million people per month since at least April, as IBM looks to focus on key drivers such as software, cloud services and AI.
IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna attends a panel session at the World Economic Forum on January 17, 2023, in Davos, Switzerland.
Stefan Wermuth Bloomberg | Getty Images
IBM said on Tuesday Selling his weather unitincluding The Weather Channel, Weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar.
IBM will sell the assets to Francisco Partners, a technology-focused private equity firm. Undisclosed amount. The deal includes the weather unit’s forecast science and technology platform as well as enterprise data services for the broadcast, media, aviation and advertising technology industries. Francisco Partners plans to pivot the weather business segment to be more consumer-facing, adding new tools for health and wellness users, according to the announcement.
As part of the deal, IBM will retain access to the company’s weather data, which it uses to power some of the artificial intelligence models it sells to enterprise clients. That system, which is also trained on NASA’s satellite data, is geared toward ESG data parsing and climate analysis such as natural disaster monitoring.
IBM paid and made $2 billion for the company in 2016 allegedly It has been exploring a sale since at least April, as it seeks to streamline its business. The company said its weather unit serves an average of 415 million people per month, and an April report estimated that the upcoming deal would be worth Over $1 billion.
The sale aligns with IBM’s strategy shift, as the company narrows its focus on key drivers such as software, cloud services and AI.
One of those bets is Watsonx, the enterprise AI development tool IBM announced in May that will debut in the third quarter. The company aims to lead the development of user-friendly AI for businesses, due to the huge demand and shortage of human talent in the AI field. The platform includes a feature for AI-generated code, an AI governance toolkit, and a library of thousands of large-scale AI models, trained on language, geospatial data, IT events, and weather data from The Weather Company, which IBM will continue to use. .