Bridging a gap

IBM reports it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Venetica, a privately held company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The deal is expected to close in Q4.Venetica's operations will be integrated into the Information Integration group within IBM's Information Management software business, and Venetica products will be available from IBM and its Business Partners.

Venetica is best known for its VeniceBridge software, which provides bi-directional interface that enables applications to quickly integrate with different content repositories containing unstructured information such as business documents, still images, digital media and Web pages.

IBM says with Venetica technology integrated into its DB2 Information Integrator software, IBM will be positioned to deliver a comprehensive information integration infrastructure. Further, explains IBM, Venetica software will complement other IBM middleware offerings, including DB2 Content Manager, WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Business Integration and IBM's Workplace initiatives. Additionally, in support of IBM's open-standards infrastructure strategy, Venetica software can also work with both IBM and non-IBM data sources, including EMC/Documentum, FileNet, Hummingbird, Interwoven, Open Text and Stellent, enabling organizations to leverage their existing content assets.