IBM snaps up Dublin data firm as sector's influence explodes

The Now Factory, founded in 2007, builds software that allows communications companies to analyse and capitalise on their customers' behaviour. Its clients include 40 of the world's largest communications providers who operate in 29 countries.

IBM did not reveal how much it would pay for the firm, which has 92 employees. The deal should be finalised before the end of this year.

Its founders and directors are Wicklow man Thomas Gerard Morrisroe and Russian-born Greystones resident Sviatoslav Danilov. The firm had sales of €10.8m last year, although it recorded a post-tax loss of €2m mostly due to administrative expenses.

The acquisition will add to IBM's existing data analysis division, which it estimates will generate $20bn by 2016.

'Big data' is regularly highlighted as a high-growth sector by Jobs Minister Richard Bruton. Its value lies in the commercial opportunities it presents to businesses, by allowing them to create hyper-accurate profiles of their customers and so cater for their tastes.

One popular example comes courtesy of video-streaming service Netflix, which created its first original series 'House of Cards' this year.

Before it began, Netflix used big data to meticulously research its users' tastes. By the time the show had completed production, the company was certain it had a hit on its hands, and so it proved.

In a more straightforward example, big data allows supermarkets to cater its shelves to customer tastes based on what comes through the till and under what circumstances.

The communications industry, which The Now Factory's data analysis software targets, deals with especially large volumes of data every day.

IBM said there has been an explosion in the amount of data being produced by mobile devices, placing strain on the mobile networks which try and collect it.

These volumes will only increase. It has been estimated that by 2016, the average mobile phone subscriber will access seven times as much video, 10 times as much gaming data and eight times as much social media and music content than they currently consume.

IMB claims it is the biggest player in this industry in the world, with 9,000 dedicated business analytics consultants, 500 patents and 400 researchers.