IBM Acquires Confluent for $11 Billion to Enhance AI Offerings
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Source: Newsfilter
Updated: 56 minutes ago0mins
- Acquisition Announcement: IBM has announced its acquisition of data streaming platform Confluent for $11 billion, paying $31 per share in cash, which will significantly enhance IBM's competitive position in the artificial intelligence market.
- Market Reaction: Confluent's stock surged 26% in premarket trading, indicating a positive market response to the acquisition, while IBM's stock fell approximately 1%, reflecting investor concerns over the acquisition cost.
- Future Outlook: IBM anticipates that global data growth will more than double by 2028, and this acquisition will enable it to provide a smart data platform specifically designed for AI, addressing future enterprise IT needs.
- Transaction Timeline: The deal is expected to close by mid-2026, marking a strategic acceleration of IBM's positioning in the data streaming and AI sectors.
CFLT.O
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Analyst Views on CFLT
Wall Street analysts forecast CFLT stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for CFLT is 27.68 USD with a low forecast of 24.00 USD and a high forecast of 31.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
26 Analyst Rating
19 Buy
6 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 23.140
Low
24.00
Averages
27.68
High
31.00
Current: 23.140
Low
24.00
Averages
27.68
High
31.00
Citi
Tyler Radke
Neutral
maintain
$45 -> $48
2025-10-29
Reason
Citi
Tyler Radke
Price Target
$45 -> $48
2025-10-29
maintain
Neutral
Reason
Citi analyst Tyler Radke raised the firm's price target on Confluent to $48 from $45 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares.
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer
Outperform
maintain
$26 -> $29
2025-10-28
Reason
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer
Price Target
$26 -> $29
2025-10-28
maintain
Outperform
Reason
Oppenheimer raised the firm's price target on Confluent to $29 from $26 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm notes Confluent reported solid Q3 results that exceeded expectations, highlighted by strong Cloud consumption growth. The quarter showcased improvement following recent go-to-market changes, with accelerating pipeline progression and new use cases moving into production.
BofA
Koji Ikeda
Underperform
maintain
$20 -> $24
2025-10-28
Reason
BofA
Koji Ikeda
Price Target
$20 -> $24
2025-10-28
maintain
Underperform
Reason
BofA analyst Koji Ikeda raised the firm's price target on Confluent to $24 from $20 and keeps an Underperform rating on the shares. While "more constructive on its execution" after Confluent reported "good" Q3 results, the firm thinks the multiple could be constrained until Cloud growth reaccelerates, the analyst tells investors in a post-earnings note.
DA Davidson
Buy
maintain
$27 -> $29
2025-10-28
Reason
DA Davidson
Price Target
$27 -> $29
2025-10-28
maintain
Buy
Reason
DA Davidson raised the firm's price target on Confluent to $29 from $27 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The company reported a solid beat and raise as optimizations that impacted the first half returned to a healthy level while late-stage pipeline grew over 40% sequentially for the second straight quarter and new use cases moving into production accelerated, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Large new logo adds were strong while DSP callouts were also encouraging, the firm added.
See All Ratings
About CFLT
Confluent, Inc. provides a data streaming platform that enables customers to connect their applications, systems, and data layers and can be deployed as a fully-managed cloud-native software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, Confluent Cloud, as a self-managed software offering, Confluent Platform, or as a Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) managed service offering where the raw data resides inside a customer’s own cloud environment, WarpStream. The Company also offers professional services and educational services. The Company is focused on developing a category of data infrastructure focused on data in motion for developers and enterprises. Its cloud-native offering works across multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructures and supports a variety of deployment models to support diverse customer requirements, delivering massive scalability, elasticity, security, and global interconnectedness, enabling agile development. WarpStream offers a lower-cost option for relaxed latency use cases for customers.
About the author
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Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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