IBM Acquires BuildForge, Inc. to Help Organizations Meet Compliance Demands

Contact: Karen Lilla IBM Communications 1-617-693-8115 karen_lilla@us.ibm.com

ARMONK, New York- (MARKET WIRE) - May 02, 2006 - IBM today announced it has acquired BuildForge, Inc., a privately held software company based in Austin, Texas. Financial details were not disclosed.

BuildForge helps customers automate their software development processes, as well as meet audit and compliance mandates. BuildForge software helps software development teams document what was created, how it was developed, and where the application was deployed.

Organizations are increasingly under pressure to deliver enterprise products and services faster. In addition, development organizations are hard pressed to manage complex applications and coordinate globally distributed development while maintaining high quality software. They are faced with the need to meet compliance mandates -- either from external or internal pressures -- that require complete traceability and audit trails that demand a new flexible development infrastructure.

BuildForge technology, in combination with IBM Rational software, can help organizations alleviate these challenges by providing an integrated offering that can allow teams to automate, track, audit and analyze their application development lifecycle, often using the tools they have in place today. As a result, they can increase product quality, team efficiency and move toward achieving sustainable compliance management.

The acquisition further strengthens IBM's leadership in helping our clients innovate and grow. According to the IBM 2005 Global CFO Study of CFOs and senior Finance professionals in 74 countries, 59% stated that compliance programs and strengthening the internal control environment are the most important areas of focus in their departments.

" The acquisition of BuildForge will ultimately help customers more effectively govern their software and systems development," said Danny Sabbah, general manager, Rational Software, IBM. "BuildForge closes the gap between writing code, building an application, and releasing it into production."

Since IBM's acquisition of Rational Software in 2003, IBM has invested significant resources in the Rational software division. This acquisition further demonstrates IBM's commitment to software development tools as an integral component of its middleware portfolio.
IBM's acquisition of BuildForge builds upon the existing relationship between the two companies. Founded in 2001, BuildForge is an IBM Ready for Rational software Business Partner. BuildForge has more than 65 customers in the U.S. and Canada across a variety of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, information technology, aerospace and defense, insurance and others. More than 80% of BuildForge's customers are deploying Rational software to govern their software development process. BuildForge operations will be integrated into IBM's Rational software business.

About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 90 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of on demand business. For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com.