However, it is not taking over The Weather Channel.
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The technology giant structured the purchase to include the Weather Co.’s fast-growing data businesses: weather.com, Weather Underground, WSI and the Weather Co. brand name. The Weather Channel, a cable-television outlet, is not part of the deal, but it is to license weather-forecast data from IBM.
The combination will serve as the foundation for the new Watson unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform, IBM said.
The Weather Company was jointly purchased back in 2008, for around $3.5 billion by three firms including the private-equity firms Bain Capital LLC and Blackstone Group LP, and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal. In a LinkedIn essay, Kenny said he was “thrilled” to join IBM because the company had “the global scale needed to keep us the worldwide leader in weather”.
To start, you’ll notice a new home screen when you open the app that tells you current weather conditions, what temperature it feels like outside, and what weather you can expect later in the day.
IBM also recently partnered with The Weather Company back in March to trade data crunching services to several industries including retail and utility.
Even though weather seems to be in the focus here, it’s actually about data – and large quantities of it. “The planned acquisition would bring together IBM’s powerful cognitive and analytics platform and The Weather Company’s dynamic cloud data platform, which powers the fourth most-used mobile app daily in the United States and handles 26 billion inquiries to its cloud-based services each day”.
“We see the next wave of improved forecasting coming from the intersection of atmospheric science, computer science, and analytics”, said David Kenny, chairman and CEO of The Weather Company. IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty has been banking on big growth from its cognitive computing arm known as Watson. The tech giant has had years of shrinking revenue, but it contends that its investments in Watson will take time to bear fruit.
Over the last few years, IBM has employed the artificial intelligence and machine-learning technology behind Watson to sift through ever growing mountains of data to help businesses glean strategic insight.
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IBM will be picking up more talent in the deal. While the company is cooperating with the security exchange, investors are much concerned about the case.
