IBM is close to buying The Weather Company’s digital assets, source says

(By Liana B. Baker, Reuters) International Business Machines Corp. is nearing an agreement to buy the Weather Company’s digital assets in a deal that could be announced as soon as this week, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The deal, which will not include the Weather Channel cable network, would be valued at more than $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Tuesday, citing sources.

After the deal closes, the Weather Company Chief Executive Officer David Kenny is expected to join IBM, the newspaper said.

The Weather Company, based in Atlanta, is currently owned by private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital and Comcast Corp’s NBC Universal, which bought the firm in 2008 for about $3.5 billion.

The Weather Company, NBC Universal, Blackstone and Bain Capital declined to comment. IBM, whose shares were unchanged after hours on Tuesday, could not be reached immediately for comment.

IBM and the Weather Company, through its business-to-business division WSI, signed a deal in March to integrate the Weather Company’s weather data services with IBM’s cloud services.

The digital assets include data, forecasting and apps.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Crosby and Cynthia Osterman)