Francisco Partners Set to Acquire The Weather Company Assets from IBM

By Adriano Marchese

Investment firm Francisco Partners has agreed to acquire The Weather Company assets, including the popular Weather.com platform, from IBM for an undisclosed sum.

The sale comes at a time when extreme weather-related events are forcing countries to deal with more frequent and severe storms, wildfires and heat waves.

The two companies said Francisco Partners will acquire The Weather Company's digital consumer-facing offerings, The Weather Channel mobile and cloud-based digital properties including Weather.com, as well as Weather Underground and Storm Radar.

Francisco Partners will also gain control of its enterprise offerings for broadcast, media aviation, advertising technology and data solutions for other emerging industries, they said.

The Weather Company serves an average of about 415 million people every month through its consumer-facing assets such as The Weather Channel website and app for mobile devices.

As part of the transaction, IBM will retain its sustainability software business, including the Environmental Intelligence Suite, and IBM intends to continue to use The Weather Company's data in the software.

Francisco Partners plans to grow its new acquisition beyond weather forecasting. It said that it will look to bring new tools and experiences to its users, while offering more actionable insights to businesses and organizations.

No details of the transaction were released, but the companies said that it is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of next year.

Write to Adriano Marchese at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 22, 2023 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

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