IBM to acquire Hashi for $6.4 billion, hopes it will boost software biz and Red Hat

IBM has announced it will acquire Hashi for $6.4 billion, and touted the deal as meaning its hybrid cloud platform will emerge with a “comprehensive” set of products.

Big Blue CEO Arvind Krishna said enterprises are struggling to wrestle complex tech estates sprawling across multiple clouds, on-prem environments, and applications. Adding Hashi’s infrastructure management offerings to IBM’s existing Red Hat portfolio, he said, will mean the ancient IT company can help customers to cope. And because this is 2024 Krishna added that Hashi will mean IBM can help customers add generative AI applications too. He also thinks Hashi's security offerings are underappreciated, one reason the acquired company will sit within IBM's software business rather than becoming part of Red Hat.

In prepared remarks delivered on IBM’s Q1 2024 earnings call, CFO Jim Kavanaugh offered a little detail on how IBM plans to use Hashi ...