What is Dell doing acquiring StatSoft? This is not a particularly small acquisition (although numbers have not been released), and StatSoft is a leading name in business analytics. Well it’s simple enough really. Dell has recently acquired several business analytics technologies (Toad and Kitenga – and now StatSoft), and with the term ‘big data’ mentioned in every other sentence on its web site, promotional material and press releases it is reasonable to assume that Dell expects ‘big data’ analytics tools to lead to big infrastructure needs – lots of tin in other words.
The StatSoft acquisition is a good move – this is a seriously good technology supplier, and a review can be found here. Of course the danger with acquisitions of this nature comes from a potential clash of cultures. Dell – the commodity tin shifter, and StatSoft bursting at the seams with PhD Statisticians and mathematicians. Will the two mix? There is a good chance they won’t, although if this recent spate of acquisitions simply serves to fuel a pipeline for big data infrastructure, then maybe management will have the sense to let the value-add they have acquired continue adding value – or is this expecting too much of Dell management?