IBM

Alliance participants, including Coke, Kraft, and P&G among others, first convened in March 2010 to discuss the state of publicly available product data, and decided to form the alliance and work together to improve it.

Historically,Land O' Lakes ran as a holding company with many separate entities. Over time,this resulted in an overly complex IT environment. In 2005,a strategic decision was made to move toward an operating company mode. Here, two company VPs give an exclusive update on Project Catalyst'sprogress.

The deal expands IBM's initiatives to help organizations gain customer insight and transform marketing through technology.

This week, IBM announced plans to acquire Netezza, a leader in data warehouse, analytic and monitoring appliances, for $1.7 billion. Are these companies well matched? And how is the acquisition going to impact the competitive data warehousing landscape? Here, bloggers and industry experts share their thoughts in this big deal.

The acquisition is expected to expands IBM's integration portfolio and cross-channel commerce software for marketing, selling and fulfillment.

IBM gains the ability to help businesses gain intelligence into socialnetworks and online media sources through a cloud-based delivery model.

Accenture will provide management services for the local applications and related project services of Henkel's North American business.

On Monday, IBM announced its intent to acquire Sterling Commerce from AT&T for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. We asked experts from IDC, Gartner and Altimeter Group to weigh in on the deals implications for IBM and consumer goods companies.