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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesAfter a year, IBM had evidence of customer and partner momentum for SoftLayer and described the acquisition as strategically important. But the public figures cited at the time do not show SoftLayer’s standalone revenue, profit, or return on the $1.977 billion purchase price. They support a case for strategic and commercial progress—not a financial ranking among IBM’s acquisitions.
What IBM bought and why
IBM completed its acquisition of 100% of SoftLayer on July 3, 2013, for $1.977 billion in cash. IBM said SoftLayer joined its Cloud business unit and was combined with IBM SmartCloud as part of a global platform. IBM’s 2013 annual report documents the transaction terms and integration.
IBM’s acquisition FAQ framed the purchase as a way to expand its cloud infrastructure and reach both cloud-native businesses and enterprise workloads. SoftLayer’s offerings included bare-metal dedicated servers, virtualized shared servers, managed private and public cloud, storage, networking, and managed services. IBM also cited global availability, customer choice, and integration with its enterprise services as intended benefits. Those points describe IBM’s rationale, not independent proof that the expected benefits were achieved.
What IBM reported after the first year
In a July 15, 2014 announcement, IBM said SoftLayer had attracted thousands of new clients since the acquisition. It named Macy’s, Whirlpool, Daimler subsidiary moovel, and Sicoss Group. IBM also said more than 1,000 business partners had agreed to offer services on the platform. The announcement is useful evidence of the customer and partner traction IBM chose to highlight, but it does not report retention, revenue from those customers, profit, or an independent audit. IBM’s one-year announcement is in Italian.
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IBM executive Erich Clementi, then senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services, called SoftLayer “an acquisition of fundamental importance for IBM Cloud” during the first year. The statement is an executive assessment, rather than a measure of financial performance. The English-language version of the quote appeared in IBM’s release carried by PR Newswire.
How to read IBM’s cloud figures
IBM’s 2014 presentation supplied broader cloud context, but its figures should not be mistaken for SoftLayer results. The values below refer to IBM’s cloud business or cloud services overall, not revenue attributable solely to the acquired company. IBM’s 2014 SoftLayer presentation reported:
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| Figure | What it measures | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| $4.4 billion in 2013 | Total IBM cloud revenue, as presented by IBM in 2014 | SoftLayer-only revenue |
| 69% growth in 2013 | Growth in IBM cloud revenue, as presented by IBM in 2014 | SoftLayer’s individual growth rate |
| $2 billion annual run rate | IBM’s “as a service” business, as described in the 2014 presentation | A SoftLayer-specific run rate |
| $2.8 billion annual run rate in 2014 Q2 | IBM cloud delivered as a service; IBM said it was nearly 100% higher year over year | SoftLayer-specific revenue or growth |
Because these are portfolio-wide figures, they cannot show how much of IBM’s cloud growth came from SoftLayer. They add context about the cloud business IBM was building, not a standalone income statement for the acquired company.
What the later filing adds
IBM’s 2015 annual report described continued SoftLayer revenue momentum and strong demand, supporting the view that the business remained commercially relevant after the first-year announcement. It did not provide a standalone SoftLayer revenue figure, profit, or return on acquisition cost. IBM’s 2015 annual report filing therefore strengthens the case for ongoing momentum, but not for a quantified acquisition payoff.
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The evidence supports a narrower conclusion: IBM integrated SoftLayer into its cloud business, reported customer and partner growth after a year, and later described continued revenue momentum and strong demand. That is meaningful evidence of strategic fit and commercial progress. It is not enough to establish that SoftLayer was among IBM’s most financially successful acquisitions or that the deal had paid for itself.
A fair comparison with IBM’s other acquisitions would need comparable deal-level information: revenue and profit attributable to each acquired business, customer growth or retention, integration costs, cash flow, and returns relative to purchase price. The cited documents provide some evidence on integration and IBM-reported traction, but not the comparable financial measures needed for a ranking. Since IBM itself issued the performance statements, they should be read as the company’s account of progress, not an independent verdict.
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