Dell today announced that it has acquired StatSoft, an analytics solutions company that specialized in predictive analytics software, data mining, and data visualization.
According to Dell’s announcement the acquisition will put StatSoft and its experts into Dell’s big data division, increasing the company’s data management and optimization solutions offerings. The terms of the acquisition agreement have not been made public.
“We’re excited to join the Dell family and add our technology and expertise to Dell’s rapidly growing set of information management capabilities,” said Paul Lewicki, founder and CEO of StatSoft. “StatSoft’s advanced analytics software has a long track record of proven success across a wide variety of predictive analytics and data mining applications including agile manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, risk management, fraud detection, and research. Together with Dell, we can create new opportunities for customers to better leverage the growing volumes of data that are quickly becoming the lifeblood of organizations of all sizes, and further advance StatSoft’s mission of making the world more productive.”
The PC market is in decline, and has been now for years. The growth seen in the smart phone market over the past seven years first began to cut into PC manufacturers’ profits several years ago, and the recent explosive growth seen in the tablet market has fundamentally changed the traditional PC market for good.
As sales of notebooks and desktop PCs continue to decline each quarter, PC manufacturers are now scrambling for a business model that can bring back the revenue growth seen in the early days of the computer revolution. Some companies are betting on new hardware iterations such as touchscreens or Ultra HD displays, but none of these features has yet proved necessary for a consumer market overcome with demand for tablets and other mobile devices.
Other PC manufacturers are beginning to realize that the PC market may never be the same, even after the global market for mobile devices becomes saturated. These corporations are transitioning their business models to focus more on security and analytics offerings, putting their software talent to work on the problems businesses face in our ever-connected societies.
Intel began this transition earlier than most and has gone on to thrive as a mainly business-to-business enterprise. More recently HP has begun its transition to a service role, overhauling its enterprise security division and acquiring big data companies such as Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Autonomy.
Dell’s acquisition of demonstrates just how important enterprise solutions have become for the former giants of the PC industry. Now that Dell has once again become a private entity, the company’s executives are using the lack of shareholder pressure to reorganize the organization for what appears to be a future founded in business-to-business offerings.