IBM Acquires Transitive for Undisclosed Sum

Big Blue announced plans to acquire the privately owned virtualization company Transitive Corporation, based in Los Gatos, Calif. The acquisition is part of IBM’s strategy to expand its virtualization portfolio. Transitive technology is already incorporated into IBM’s PowerVM software, which is designed to help customers consolidate x86 Linux workloads onto IBM Systems. IBM did not disclose the terms of the acquisition, although the company plans to complete the deal in December.

IBM Power Systems public relations manager Rick Bause said it was too early to comment on the impact this acquisition would have on SMBs. "We're currently in the process of evaluating Transitive's products as part of our overall IBM Systems strategy," he said. Transitive specializes in cross-platform virtualization, which allows applications written for one type of microprocessor and operating system to run on multiple platforms without complicated modification.

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"This acquisition is part of IBM's strategy to help clients optimize the efficiency and productivity of their computing infrastructure and improve the utilization of the servers that run them," an IBM release stated.

Transitive’s rise to power was aided by Apple’s chip transition from PowerPC to Intel in 2006, necessitating a reconfiguration of software programming. Transition's software translation technology, which Apple released under the name Rosetta, was instrumental in allowing PowerPC configured software to run on Intel chips. In addition to Apple, HP and Sun also hold Transitive licenses.

Transitive Corporation was founded in 2000, although the history of the company’s technology dates back to 1995, where the development of QuickTransit, the company’s cross-platform virtualization software, was developed at Manchester University in the UK.