IBM has announced their intention to buy ILOG for $340 million USD

Today I read this piece of news from http://bizrules.info/weblog/. Somehow, I had mixed feelings about it. A feeling of "ah ! its expected" + " oohh !!! so it is IBM now". The former feeling is because of regular market dynamics, where in, niche, small players enter the market, they "ripe" well in the market and later its time for the biggies to harvest them. It was same with Corticon in the Business Rules space, acquired by TIBCO. And now its part of TIBCO iprocess Suite. The same was expected out of ILOG. Now it will be part of IBM SOA suite of products. Probably, stacked along with the famous IBM WPS.

The second feeling is because that, it is the move of IBM now to establish itself in the BPM/BRMS market. It has placed itself as leader in integration-centric BPM tool with WPS. Now, with this acquisition it has also acquired the benefits of an established BRMS tool in the market, ILOG. The deal seems to be win-win to both the companies. In one way, ILog will get the huge network in terms of business what IBM already has. Also, it will have the strength of IBM in terms of brand image and reach in the market.

And, IBM in turn has the advantage of ILog's image as a leader (Acc to Gartner magic quadrants/ Forrester wave) in BRMS space. So as I was mentioning above, the fragmented BRMS market is headed towards more consolidation and more dollar value/firm, now. Following typical life cycle of an industry. Niche players => More players with differentiation => perfect competition => M&As, market consolidation => sometimes Monopoly... Is BRMS market going to follow the same curve????