International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) entered into a definitive agreement with Vista Equity Partners to purchase Apptio Inc. for $4.6 billion, the company said Monday.

Apptio provides tools to help companies keep track of the software and services they use and manage costs. The Bellevue, Washington-based company provides services to financial institutions like Bank of America (BAC) and Allstate (ALL) and tech companies like Amazon Web Services (AMZN), Microsoft Azure (MSFT), and Salesforce (CRM).

Vista Equity acquired Appito the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:software as a service (SaaS) provider in 2019 for $1.94 billion. The two companies are working on closing the deal and no specific timeline was provided.

The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:acquisition will help IBM move closer to its hybrid-cloud and artificial intelligence goals. In 2019, IBM bought Red Hat, a cloud computing company, for $34 billion (its biggest acquisition) as a major push into the cloud computing business.

"Technology is changing business at a rate and pace we've never seen before. To capitalize on these changes, it is essential to optimize investments which drive better business value, and Apptio does just that," said Arvind Krishna, CEO and chairman of IBM in a statement. "Apptio's offerings combined with IBM's IT automation software and WatsonX AI platform, gives clients the most comprehensive approach to optimize and manage all of their technology investments."

The big blue has been making investments and launching products pertaining to AI to help businesses improve their tech stack based on evolving technology. Last month, IBM launched WatsonX, an all-in-one AI tool for businesses.

WatsonX is a development studio for companies to “train, tune and deploy” machine-learning models. It can provide businesses with an AI governance toolkit, a library of thousands of large-scale AI modeꦏls trained on language, geospatial data, IT events, and code.

The company is also deepening its relations with financial institutions to help them digitize their platforms. Last week, IBM partnered with Qatar National Bank to digitize its tech stack for a better consumer experience.

In April, IBM reported Q1 2023 revenue at $14.13 billion, up by 0.4% over the year prior while its software revenue stood at $5.9 billion, a jump of 2.6% YoY.

IBM shares were trading were up about 0.6% in early market trading on Monday.