According to recent news, it is believed that International Business Machines Corporation will become the most accurate weather forecaster in the coming times. The company has officially claimed that they are on the verge of getting their hands on "The Weather Company" which is a digital technologies and data assets firm. Reuters was the first one to begin such speculations however the speculations have been approved by the company on their own. Sources familiar to the matter suggest that the partnership collaboration that is between Big Blue and The Weather Channel could be valued at $2 billion. Despite the deal being so close to be finalized by both parties, the details and finances are not yet made public. This deal does not include the take over of its primary television cable channel business however it is only interested to acquire the digital part of its technologies such as the website, application, cloud business, cloud based web properties, Weather Underground, Weather Channel brand, and weather.com. Furthermore, it will be taking over the data infrastructure as well. It is believed that the company is more interested in the forecasting group of its partners, WSI. According to a source, “WSI houses forecasting technologies and weather data compilations, which the company collects and licenses to other businesses, ranging from insurance companies to utility companies and airlines.” It is known that The Weather Company is in the ownership by a consortium where NBC Universal, which is owned by Comcast Corporation, owns 25 percent of it whereas Bain Capital, LLC with Blackstone Group LP along with are accountable for the left 75% of the share. In 2008, this consortium purchased the company for over more than $3.5 billion. It has not been mentioned anywhere in the Big Blue’s announced but according to the publication, the chief executive of The Weather Company, David Kenny, will be joining IBM when the deal is fully completed. The Weather Company put itself for sale a couple of times prior to this in an attempt to lure potential buyers. Once, Google was also willing to invest in the assets of the company. However, soon they lost interest. The rumors started to gather pace since the beginning of this year over a potential deal between two parties. It is now been confirmed and the deal is on the verge of completion. Both parties have allied together on previous occasions as well to make businesses flourish with their respective technologies.
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