A Critical Analysis of the Problems Occurred by Major Acquisitions of the BigFix Inc - Research Paper Example

Although commonly misinterpreted as one, merger and acquisition are two different business strategies in the sense that merger is the process of combining two or more business organizations which often occurs through the purchase acquisition of another business entity (InvestorWords 2011a) whereas acquisition is referring to the act of gaining control over a company by purchasing its stocks as a way of gaining the legal rights to take over the business (InvestorWords 2011b; Hill and Hill 2005).

As explained by Massoudi (2006, p. 19), it is important for IBM Tivoli to learn more about the market potential and profitability of acquiring another company like the BigFix by carefully examining the value of its IT technology and expertise IBM Tivoli could gain out of purchasing another company. As a strategy to improve IBM Tivoli’s security-related field, IBM has been continuously acquiring other IT companies that specialize in the development of IT security software. As IBM Tivoli’s 11th acquired producers of security-related software, the company made its final decision to formalize its acquisition of the BigFix Inc.

for the price of US$400 million (£263 million) back on the 1st of July 2010 (DiazFounded back in 1997, BigFix Inc. is a US-based company that specializes in the reduction of cost and complexity when managing network servers, personal computers and mobile system (Haikes 2011). In line with this, Amrit Williams – BigFix’s CTO stated that “BigFix is a leading global provider of high-performance system and security management software designed for the special needs of enterprise companies and that BigFix’s unified management platform provides the users with real-time visibility and control through the use of a single infrastructure, single agent, and single console for systems lifecycle management, endpoint protection, security configuration, and vulnerability management” (Winman 2010).