IBM Corp has been threatening to make a string of software company acquisitions, and the first has just materialised, in the shape of Unix transaction processing monitor specialist Transarc Corp, Pittsburgh, a company IBM bankrolled when it was set up to exploit development work done at Carnegie Mellon University on the Andrew File System (CI No 1,180). Beyond the fact that IBM had made a substantial investment, the ownership structure of Transarc has never been made clear, but vendors that have adopted its Encina transaction monitor are not likely to be cheering at the news that this will now be owned by IBM, albeit via a wholly-owned subsidiary that will continue to trade as Transarc. Its chairman, Dr Alfred Spector, declares that the company is in a period of rapid growth and this acquisition will further increase the rate of market penetration by our products – it will also allow us to provide increased value to IBM and other customers. He reckons that Transarc continues to be a reliable and valuable partner to the many companies with whom we have alliances, but really, that is for those companies to say.Encina is a key part of IBM’s new CICS/6000 transaction processing monitor for AIX.
