Canada's largest software company, Cognos Inc., said Monday it has agreed to a $5-billion US friendly takeover by IBM.
The U.S. computing giant will pay $58 US per share in cash for Cognos.
Cognos 3-month TSX chart
The offer includes a premium of more than $5 US over the $52.98 US closing price of Cognos shares last week.
Investors responded by sending Cognos shares up almost 8 per cent to $57.15 US on Nasdaq, and up more than 10 per cent to $55.35 on the TSX.
Based in Ottawa, Cognos produces business software and employs about 4,000 people around the world.
"We chose Cognos because of its industry-leading technology that is based on open standards," said Steve Mills, senior vice-president in IBM's software group.
"IBM is a perfect complement to our strategy, with minimal overlap in product," said Rob Ashe, the president and CEO of Cognos.
Speculation of a takeover of Cognos increased after its larger rival, Business Objects, agreed to be acquired by SAP, the German software giant, for nearly $7 billion US over Thanksgiving weekend.
In March, Oracle bought another Cognos competitor, Hyperion Solutions Corp., for $3.3 billion US.
Analysts had pegged IBM, Microsoft and Oracle as possible buyers of Cognos.
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