With the sale of Bellevue-based business software maker Apptio to tech giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) now complete, Apptio co-founder and CEO Sunny Gupta is looking to increase the company's influence.
The companies first announced the $4.6 billion acquisition in June and completed the deal on Aug. 10. For Gupta, joining Apptio's new parent company puts it on a new trajectory.
"Since we were founded, my vision has always been how do I take Apptio's software to companies of all sizes," Gupta said. "We'll be able to drive ubiquity and faster scale of Apptio into the market than we would have been able to do on our own."
Apptio was founded in 2007 and went public in 2016, but was acquired three years later by Austin-based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for $1.94 billion. In the news release announcing the close of the IBM deal, Vista CEO Robert Smith said it was "an honor" to work with Gupta and that "we wish the entire Apptio team the best in the next phase of their growth with IBM."
IBM is taking on and expanding Apptio's roughly 1,400-employee team. Gupta said spending over four years with Vista was important for Apptio's growth and becoming a good fit for IBM across its international footprint.
"We had to go through the Vista journey in order for Apptio to become even more relevant in the cloud and digital world," Gupta said.
Apptio helps clients monitor the return they're getting on their tech spending. The company has more than 1,500 clients, including Bank of America, FedEx, Allstate and Nike. Apptio acquired Austin-based cloud costs savings company Cloudwiry in December for an undisclosed amount.
The purchase by IBM is not expected to affect Apptio's space needs in the near term. The company shed about 28,000 square feet of office space in Bellevue last year but still retains over 60,100 square feet of space at Plaza East. Gupta said in June Apptio plans to keep its current space there and could need more eventually given IBM's plan to invest in the company's growth.
Armonk, New York-based IBM generated $15.5 billion in revenue during the second quarter, down 0.4% year over year. The company has clients in over 175 countries and offers services in artificial intelligence, cloud solutions and consulting.
In the news release announcing the close of the Apptio acquisition, IBM said buying Apptio provides $450 billion in anonymized IT spending data, benefiting IBM's artificial intelligence and data services.
