(By Balaseshan) International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) said it has agreed to buy privately-held flash memory solutions developer Texas Memory Systems (TMS) for an undisclosed sum, to boost IBM's Smarter Computing approach to IT.
Following acquisition close, IBM plans to invest in and support the TMS product portfolio, and will look to integrate over time TMS technologies into a variety of solutions including storage, servers, software, and PureSystems offerings.
TMS, which is privately held company based in Houston, Texas and founded in 1978, designs and sells high-performance solid state storage solutions.
Unlike hard disk drives that rely on spinning disks and robotic arms, solid state systems are high-speed data storage solutions based on Flash or RAM memory that can provide significantly faster throughput and data access while consuming less power.
IDC estimates the amount of solid state storage solutions being shipped into the enterprise will grow significantly, reaching nearly 3 exabytes by 2016.
TMS, which employs about 100 people, offers its solid state solutions as the RamSan family of shared rackmount systems and Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) cards.The deal is expected to close later in 2012.
IBM is trading up 0.20% at $198.79 on Thursday. The stock has been trading between $157.13 and $210.69 for the past 52 weeks.