Ibm Tender Offer For Lotus Completed
International Business Machines Corp. said it completed its $3.5 billion tender offer for Lotus Development Corp., the largest software acquisition in the history of the industry.
Lotus, publisher of the pioneering 1-2-3 spreadsheet and Notes applications, will become a subsidiary of the world’s biggest computer company. The companies have said that Lotus Chairman Jim Manzi will become an IBM senior vice president.
The acquisition gives IBM a key product to compete against Microsoft Corp.’s dominance of the desktop computer software market.