IBM Acquires Adobe Workfront Consultancy Amid Kyndryl Spin-Out
IBM continues to acquire technology consulting firms as it prepares to spin off the Kyndryl Managed Infrastructure Services business over the next several weeks.
In the most recent transaction, IBM will acquire Adobe Workfront advisory unit and assets from Rego Consulting Corporation. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
This is the # 653 technology M&A deal ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021.
Reinvent IBM?
This deal is the latest step in Krishna’s efforts to move the enterprise technology provider to multi-cloud software that drives business automation.
The acquisition of Rego’s Adobe Workfront business specializes in Adobe Experience Cloud, Creative Cloud and Document Cloud projects. The transaction represents the 17th overall acquisition for IBM (and the ninth acquisition in the cloud and AI services sector) since Arvind Krishna took over the company as IBM CEO in April 2020.
Rego’s Adobe Workfront business will be integrated with Adobe practice within IBM iX, IBM Consulting’s client and experience transformation group. IBM iX provides integrated advisory services for marketing, sales, and service functions.
IBM takes over consulting expertise from Adobe: Perspectives for executives
In a prepared statement on the deal Mark Foster, Senior Vice President of IBM Consulting, said:
“The cloud and AI reinvention is happening at an unprecedented scale and pace, and corporate marketing is no exception. The ongoing investments that IBM is making in advisory services through acquisitions like this one make IBM the partner of choice for customers to turn to for their digital business transformation. “
Tony Sanders added, Senior Director, Americas Partner Sales at Adobe:
“IBM and Adobe have had a strategic partnership for over 20 years, and enterprise marketers are working with us on digital transformation. With today’s announcement, IBM gains even deeper know-how in the marketing area and consulting capacities in the rapidly growing area of work management. “
Closed Dan Greer, President of Rego Consulting:
“Labor management is an important and often overlooked part of the vision of delivering high-impact customer experiences. Our Adobe Workfront Management solutions will find a natural home in IBM iX as they enable the world’s largest companies to master their digital work transformations. “
IBM Spin-Off from Kyndryl: MSP Business Details
Meanwhile, IBM is well on its way to spinning Kyndryl out as an independent Managed Infrastructure Services Provider (MSP) business before 2022. IBM and Kyndryl will certainly partner up, but the companies can also compete on some fronts, ChannelE2E believes.
Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM
In fact, some of the recent acquisitions made by IBM under CEO Arvind Krishna include cloud migration services and some form of managed services. These recently acquired services will remain in the IBM business portfolio, while Kyndryl will also focus on six global managed services practices. These Kyndryl practices include:
- cloud
- Applications, data & AI
- Security & resilience
- Core Enterprise & zCloud
- Network & Edge
- Digital workplace
In a way, IBM Consulting focuses on several of these services.
