ISTANBUL

US-based tech giant IBM announced Monday that it will acquire data streaming platform Confluent for $11 billion.

IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for all of Confluent's issued and outstanding common shares. By the middle of 2026, the deal is anticipated to close, according to a statement by the firm.

"To fuel meaningful outcomes and drive productivity in operations, these applications, as well as AI agents, need access to connected and trusted data – in real time. IBM and Confluent will enable end-to-end integration of applications, analytics, data systems and AI agents to drive intelligence and resilience in hybrid cloud environments," the statement said.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the two firms together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications, and APIs.

"Data is spread across public and private clouds, data centers, and countless technology providers. With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI," he noted.

Confluent shares were up more than 28% after the announcement, while IBM rose around 0.8%.