Mumbai: IBM Corporation (www.ibm.com) has announced the completion of its $2.1-billion acquisition of Rational Software Corporation. The acquisition, announced on 6 December 2002, was completed before the US market opened on 21 February 2003.

In India, Rational Software has offices across six locations including the metro cities. According to IDC, Rational had a share of 55 per cent in the application tools market in India. M K Bharatee, who previously was heading Rational’s business in India, is the country manager of the new division.

Rational provides open, industry standard tools, best practices and services for developing business applications and building software products and systems, including embedded software for devices such as cell phones and medical systems.

“By adding Rational to our team, we gain not only industry-leading application development software but also a group of highly-skilled people,” says Frank Luksic, country executive, software group and developer relations, IBM India. “Having people with the skills to support our customers’ requirements as they move into new areas of e-business is critical for us as we continue our growth in India.”

“Rational is an important element of our e-business on demand initiative,” adds Steve Mills, IBM senior vice-president and group executive, IBM software group. “Rational’s complete, open software development platform can improve the speed, quality and predictability of software projects. It’s a perfect complement to our existing four brands — WebSphere, DB2, Lotus and Tivoli.”

Rational shareholders approved the acquisition on 22 January 2003, and the required worldwide government regulatory approval process has been completed. Rational, with customers in 89 countries and more than 3,400 employees, estimates that more than 600,000 software developers use its software tools. Rational operates in 10 countries in Asia and has more than 350 employees.

Rational will be integrated into IBM as the fifth brand of IBM software group, a $13-billion business in 2002. IDC estimates the market opportunity for application development software will grow from $9 billion in 2002 to $15 billion in 2006.