International Business Machines Corporation - IBM STOCK NEWS

IBM has announced its intent to acquire Applications Software Technology , a global Oracle consultancy specializing in public sector cloud transformations. The acquisition will enhance IBM's Oracle solutions capabilities across North America, the UK, and Ireland, building on IBM's 2024 Accelalpha acquisition.

Applications Software Technology brings expertise in Oracle Cloud Applications Suite, particularly in Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, HCM, and CPQ, along with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The company has been an Oracle partner since 1996 and serves public sector clients, including local government and K-12 education, as well as commercial clients in manufacturing, energy, and consumer packaged goods industries.

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2025, with Applications Software Technology joining IBM Consulting. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition aligns with IBM's open ecosystem approach and will strengthen its position in helping clients navigate complex business transformations with Oracle cloud solutions.

IBM and L'Oréal have announced a groundbreaking collaboration to develop the first-of-its-kind AI foundation model for cosmetic formulation. The partnership aims to leverage IBM's generative AI technology to enhance L'Oréal's ability to create sustainable cosmetics and meet its environmental goals by 2030.

The initiative will utilize L'Oréal's cosmetic science expertise combined with IBM's AI capabilities to analyze formulation data, facilitate the use of sustainable raw materials, and reduce energy and material waste. The AI model will process numerous formulations and component data points to accelerate product development, reformulation, and production optimization processes.

This technology will support L'Oréal's 4,000 researchers worldwide in developing more sustainable product lines with greater inclusivity and personalization. The collaboration focuses on understanding renewable ingredients' behavior in cosmetic formulas, aiming to help L'Oréal achieve its target of sourcing most product formulas from bio-sourced materials and circular economy by 2030.

IBM has announced it will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss fourth-quarter 2024 financial results on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Investors can access the live webcast of the earnings call through www.ibm.com/investor, where the earnings press release will also be available before the webcast. Following the event, IBM will provide access to a replay of the call, along with associated charts and prepared remarks.

CoreWeave has announced a partnership with IBM to deliver one of the first NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip-enabled AI supercomputers. The system will be equipped with NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems and Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking.

IBM will utilize CoreWeave's cloud platform to train next-generation Granite models, IBM's open-source enterprise AI models focused on safety, speed, and cost-efficiency. The supercomputer will integrate IBM Storage Scale System with NVMe flash technology for high-performance storage capabilities.

As part of the agreement, CoreWeave customers will gain access to IBM Storage platform within CoreWeave's environments. The collaboration aims to advance open technologies like Kubernetes for AI computing in hybrid cloud environments.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ: LFUS) announced a leadership transition as CEO David Heinzmann plans to retire after 40 years with the company. Dr. Greg Henderson, a current board director, will assume the role of President and CEO effective February 10, 2025. Heinzmann will remain on the board through April 2025 and serve as an advisor until August 10, 2025.

Dr. Henderson brings extensive industry experience, most recently leading Analog Devices' Automotive & Energy, Communications, and Aerospace Group. The company has postponed its previously planned February 26, 2025 Investor Day due to this transition.

IBM and SAP announced the upcoming release of RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server, aimed at accelerating ERP transformation. The offering is designed to help organizations migrate SAP S/4HANA workloads from IBM Power Systems on-premises to cloud within 90 days.

IBM recently completed one of the largest SAP S/4HANA Cloud modernization projects, affecting over 150,000 users across 175 countries. The project achieved a 30% reduction in infrastructure costs and related operations over 18 months by optimizing server footprint and increasing process automation.

The new solution, planned for launch in Q2 2025, leverages IBM Power servers, ranked #1 in availability among SAP-certified infrastructure. Customers will have access to the IBM Transformation Suite for SAP Applications, offering assessment tools, data migration capabilities, and automated testing services.

IBM released a global study revealing significant AI investment trends in retail and consumer products companies. The report shows that 81% of executives and 96% of their teams are already using AI substantially, with companies projecting to allocate 3.32% of revenue to AI by 2025 - equivalent to $33.2M annually for a $1B company.

Key findings indicate AI spending outside traditional IT could surge by 52% in the next year. Companies plan to expand AI usage in sophisticated areas like integrated business planning, expecting an 82% increase by 2025. Customer service AI applications could grow by 236% in the next 12 months, with 55% involving human-AI collaboration.

The study also highlights a significant governance gap: while 87% of executives claim to have AI governance frameworks, less than 25% have fully implemented risk management tools. Companies expect 31% of employees will need AI-related reskilling within a year, rising to 45% within three years.

IBM has released its education forecast for 2025, highlighting three key predictions for AI skills development. According to a recent IBM report, 87% of executives expect jobs to be augmented rather than replaced by generative AI, while 47% indicate their workforce lacks AI implementation skills.

The forecast outlines three main predictions: First, AI ethics skills will become important as education shifts from traditional AI tools to AI agents. Second, lifelong learning will become essential as employees transition to managing AI agents and adapt to emerging technologies. Third, AI integration into education platforms will increase, offering personalized learning pathways and enhanced educational experiences.

Through IBM SkillsBuild, the company offers free courses in AI ethics, artificial intelligence basics, and prompt writing. IBM has committed to training 2 million learners in AI by 2026.

IBM's new study reveals strong adoption of AI strategies among companies, with 85% reporting progress in their 2024 AI implementation and 47% achieving positive ROI. The research, surveying over 2,400 IT decision makers, highlights a growing trend toward open-source AI tools, with 51% of companies using these tools reporting positive ROI compared to 41% of non-users.

Looking ahead to 2025, 62% of respondents plan to increase AI investments, with 39% planning increases of 25-50%. Companies are focusing AI investments primarily on IT operations (63%), data quality management (46%), and product/services innovation (41%). The study also found that 60% of surveyed companies use open-source ecosystems, with larger companies more likely to base the majority of their AI solutions on open source.