IBM to buy HashiCorp in $6.4B deal (reuters.com)

Article summary

IBM is acquiring HashiCorp for $6.4 billion, with a 42.6% premium to Monday's closing price. The acquisition includes HashiCorp's products such as Terraform, Vault, and others. The deal's premium has sparked discussion about its reasonableness, with some considering it high and others noting it's still below HashiCorp's 52-week high. The acquisition's implications for HashiCorp's open-source licensing and product development are also being debated.

Main themes

• IBM acquisition of HashiCorp
• Premium and valuation
• Open-source licensing
• Product development and integration
• Red Hat and Ansible

What commenters say

• The 42.6% premium paid by IBM for HashiCorp is considered high by some, but others note it's still below the company's 52-week high.
• The acquisition may lead to changes in HashiCorp's open-source licensing, potentially reverting to OSI-approved licenses under Red Hat's policy.
• Some believe that HashiCorp's recent relicensing of Terraform was a tactic to facilitate the acquisition, while others think it was a genuine decision.
• The integration of HashiCorp's products with Red Hat's, particularly Terraform and Ansible, is expected to be complementary rather than competitive.
• There are concerns about IBM's track record with open-source projects, with some citing the example of CentOS, although others argue that IBM did not kill CentOS.
• The acquisition may not necessarily lead to a Red Hat-branded version of Terraform, as Ansible is considered a separate and competing product.
• Some commentators have expressed skepticism about IBM's ability to maintain HashiCorp's open-source projects, citing past experiences and the company's priorities.