GeekWire - IBM to acquire Apptio for $4.6 billion

The news today that IBM will acquire Apptio for $4.6 billion is the latest major twist in a 16-year journey for the Bellevue, Wash.-based cloud and IT management company. 

• The deal comes less than five years after private equity firm Vista Equity Partners acquired Apptio for $1.9 billion, and seven years after the company went public at a valuation of $525 million.

• Apptio has more than 1,400 employees, about a quarter of them in the Seattle area, and the company’s workforce is expected to “increase significantly” after the IBM deal closes, in locations including Bellevue, said Apptio CEO Sunny Gupta (above).

• The deal brings Gupta full circle. He started his career at IBM in 1992 as an engineer working on OS2, and will now rejoin the company more than three decades later as an executive leader. IBM expects the deal to close in the second half of 2023. Read more.

The U.S. Coast Guard says it plans to recover debris from OceanGate’s Titan submersible as part of its investigation into the accident in which the vessel and its crew were lost during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck. Read more.

• Related: Sub tragedy sets off a torrent of questions without answers.

• Podcast: The inside story of OceanGate in the CEO’s own words.

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• Meta is taking a page out of the Sony and Microsoft playbook with a new $7.99/month “Quest Plus” subscription that will give VR users access to two games per month. (The Verge)

• Before AI takes any credit for performing medical miracles, the technology will be handling a lot of mundane tasks and paperwork in health care. (The New York Times)

• "I’m loving every day of it," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tells “Freakonomics” host and author Stephen Dubner on a new episode of the podcast when asked if he's having fun in his job. The subject of the show, of course, is AI. (Freakonomics Radio)