IBM has visions of a cloudy future ... so buys Clearleap

IBM has slurped up video services company Clearleap for an undisclosed pile of cash, part of Big Blue's ongoing moves to reinvent itself as a cloudy player.

Clearleap will be integrated into the IBM Cloud platform, said the tech giant.

According to IBM, Clearleap's video platform allows customers to support millions of concurrent users within seconds to support special events. The technology is used by HBO, BBC America, Sony Movie Channel and Time Warner Cable.

“Clearleap joins IBM at a tipping point in the industry when visual information and visual communication are not just important to consumers, but are exploding across every industry," said Robert LeBlanc, senior veep, IBM Cloud.

"This comes together for a client when any content can be delivered quickly and economically to any device in the most natural way," he added.

Last month IBM bought cloud brokerage firm Gravitant for an undisclosed sum.

In October it spent $2bn (£1.3bn) snapping up the digital arm of the Weather Company, a US-based organisation that runs the Weather Channel and a digital company providing mobile apps.

The company has been eagerly beefing up its cloud offering for sometime, having splashed $2bn on Dallas-based SoftLayer back in June 2013.

However, in October IBM posted yet another consecutive quarter of declining sales. Revenue dropped one per cent to $19.3bn (£12.48bn) for its third quarter results, compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, net income dropped 14 per cent to $3bn (£1.94bn).®