IBM Paid $1.3 Billion to Acquire Cleversafe in Hybrid-Cloud Push

IBM paid more than $1.3 billion in cash last year to acquire closely held Cleversafe Inc., adding data-storage software that works for both public and private cloud-computing systems.

The deal, which IBM announced in October without disclosing terms, was the company’s largest in 2015, according to a filing Tuesday. International Business Machines Corp. attributed $1 billion of the total to goodwill, which represents the difference between the purchase price and the fair value of net assets -- an indication of how much eventual upside the buyer sees in the target company. Completed technology and client relationships were valued at $364 million and $23 million, respectively, while Cleversafe’s physical assets had a total value of $86 million.