IBM has agreed to acquire the California-based Star Analytics and its software products for an undisclosed sum, to expand its offerings in business analytics.

Combined expertise from IBM and Star Analytics software is claimed to help the company offer applications which will allow organisations to gain faster access and real-time insight into specialised data sources.

IBM Business Analytics general manager Leslie J Rechan said that the company sees an enormous opportunity for its clients to apply Star Analytics to the information they have stored in their financial applications.

"And to then easily access it within their IBM performance management and business intelligence solutions," Rechan added.

Star Analytics CEO Quinlan Eddy said that Star Analytics software allows organisations to move critical analytics source data at will and use with any application they need.

"As part of IBM, we can now bring our technologies to a broader range of clients to help them uncover new, untapped growth opportunities," Eddy added.

Star Analytics software offers automatic integration of essential information, reporting applications and business intelligence tools across their enterprises, on premise or from cloud computing environments, while it removes typical custom coding for sources which are hard to maintain.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013.