This morning IBM announced that it has reached an agreement with AT&T to buy its Sterling Commerce division for $1.4 billion. This is a true win-win situation with both parties gaining something valuable. IBM gets a functioning B2B network with 18,000 customers and a strong selling and fulfillment product line while Sterling Commerce gets access to true SOA capabilities via the WebSphere product line. There are real opportunities for synergies here. IBM is re-entering a market that it exited in 2005 when it sold its IBM Business Exchange Business to GXS, the world's largest B2B service provider. More on this later. What's your impression? Drop me a line at kvollmer@forrester.com.

Thanks,

Ken