IBM Stays Aggressive With Intelliden Networking Automation Buy

IBM on Tuesday announced the latest in a steady string of acquisitions over the past few months, adding Intelliden, a privately held developer of network automation software applications.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Privately held Intelliden's software is used by telecommunications providers like Telecom Italia, TELUS and Cbeyond to automate and optimize the configuration of hubs, routers and switches.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company will become part of IBM's Tivoli software unit.

"The typical company is managing a more complex and ever changing infrastructure -- stretched across digital and physical assets," Al Zollar, general manager of IBM's Tivoli unit, said in a statement. "Companies are managing a virtualized computing layer that more than ever relies on the network. Intelliden's intelligent network automation is an important addition to IBM's portfolio to extend automation across all business and IT assets."

Company officials said more than 60 percent of network outages are caused by manual configuration mistakes.

Intelliden is venture backed by firms that include UK-based venture capital firm 3i, Granite Global Ventures and Matrix Partners, Hercules Technology Growth Capital and Westbury Partners.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) shares inched up $0.55, or less than 1 percent, to $124.55 in Tuesday trading.

Big Blue has been very active on the merger and acquisition front of late.

Earlier this month, it acquired data integrity software developer Initiate Systems to beef up its business analytics and intelligence portfolio.

In December, IBM added Lombardi, a provider of business process management (BPM) apps that will be folded into its flagship WebSphere application suite.

Larry Barrett is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.