IBM to offload The Weather Channel, other digital properties in transaction

IBM and a California-based investment firm have landed on a deal for the sale of the tech giant’s The Weather Company business, slating the assets to get a new owner.

Francisco Partners will take over the numerous assets under The Weather Company, with the unit expected to become a standalone company after it and IBM complete the transaction, the two firms said Tuesday. 

In a statement, IBM Chief Commercial Officer Rob Thomas linked the sale of the unit to the tech giant’s "continued focus" on "two transformational technologies" — hybrid cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI). 

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"Over the last few years, we’ve evolved IBM to be a hybrid cloud and AI company," he said. "We regularly review our portfolio to make sure our business areas are core to that strategy."

Through the transaction, both the "digital consumer-facing offerings" and the "enterprise offerings" within The Weather Company business become things owned by Francisco Partners, in addition to its forecasting science platform and The Weather Channel’s mobile and digital assets, according to IBM and the investment firm. The Weather Company counts Weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar among those assets. 

Over 415 million people and 2,000 businesses use products from The Weather Company on a monthly basis, according to the firms.

IBM and Francisco Partners have identified the end of 2024’s first quarter as when they anticipate the closing of the deal. That will depend on "regulatory approvals, completion of local labor processes and other customary closing conditions," according to the companies.

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They did not say how much the deal was worth.

The investment firm said it aims to "bring new tools and experiences to users to help them understand how weather impacts all aspects of their lives, starting with health and well-being" once it acquires The Weather Company. It also wants to boost its offerings to businesses, according to the release. 

After the transaction, IBM’s utilization of the weather data from The Weather Company for its Environmental Intelligence Suite, which falls under the sustainability software unit it plans to hold onto, will continue. That EIS product is meant to "help clients curate, measure, report and operationalize ESG data to inform decision making, improve performance and meet regulatory requirements," the press release said. 

The announcement of the deal with Francisco Partners comes over seven years after IBM made public that it would buy The Weather Company and completed the acquisition. That transaction did not include The Weather Channel network.

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Last month, the tech giant said it generated a total of $15.48 billion in second-quarter revenue from its various business segments, a 0.4% decrease year-over-year. Meanwhile, its net income widened by 13.7%, coming in at $1.58 billion.

The company’s market cap hovered around $128.9 billion as of late Tuesday afternoon.