Confluent (CFLT) Climbs 29% on $11-Billion IBM Merger

We recently published 10 Stocks Standing Tall Amid Market Fall; 6 Hit Record Highs. Confluent Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) is one of the best performers on Monday.

Confluent snapped a two-day losing streak on Monday, soaring 29.08 percent to finish at $29.87 apiece as investors repositioned portfolios following IBM’s announcement that it would acquire the company for $11 billion.

In a statement, IBM said that it officially entered into a definitive agreement with Confluent Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) under which the former would acquire all of the latter’s outstanding common shares at a price of $31 apiece.

Confluent (CFLT) Climbs 29% on $11-Billion IBM Merger

IBM said the total value will be entirely financed with available cash on hand.

The transaction has already been approved by both firms’ board of directors, as well as Confluent Inc.’s (NASDAQ:CFLT) largest shareholders, who hold a combined 62 percent of the company.

The transaction is expected to close in the middle of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including the minority shareholders and other regulatory approvals.

“IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs. Data is spread across public and private clouds, datacenters and countless technology providers,” IBM Chairman, President, and CEO Arvind Krishna.

“With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI,” he noted.

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