IBM and ILOG Announce Future Plans

IBM and ILOG have signed an agreement proposition allowing ILOG to be implemented by way of concurrent cash public tender offers in both France and the United States. IBM will combine its business process management (BPM), business optimization, and service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies with ILOG's Business Rules Management Systems software. This will enable IBM to help clients deliver critical business information in real-time, allowing them to make better business decisions faster.

The cash tender offer will be at a price of 10 per ordinary share and the U.S. dollar equivalent per American Depositary Share ("ADS") based on the Euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers, amounting to an aggregate purchase price of approximately 215 million or approximately $US340 million on a fully diluted basis.

When completed, the acquisition of ILOG will strengthen IBM's BPM and SOA position by providing customers a full set of rule management tools for complete information and application lifecycle management across a platform including IBM's WebSphere application development and management platform.