Technology-focused private investment firm Francisco Partners is to acquire IBM weather business, which includes consumer-facing weather services such as The Weather Company’s Weather.com as well as business-oriented offerings.
Francisco Partners will operate the business, which is being acquired for an undisclosed sum, as a standalone company.
The Weather Company provides weather data to consumers and businesses and serves an average of more than 415 million people each month through its consumer-facing digital properties, including The Weather Channel mobile app and website, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, and more than 2,000 businesses across a variety of industries through its enterprise offerings.
IBM intends to continue leveraging The Weather Company’s weather data for its Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS) to help clients curate, measure, report and operationalise ESG data to inform decision making, improve performance and meet regulatory requirements.
Francisco Partners says its intends to increase investment in The Weather Company to help the business move beyond forecasting alone to bring new tools and services to users to help them understand how weather impacts all aspects of their lives, starting with health and well-being.
For businesses, The Weather Company plans to offer more actionable insights so organisations can provide greater value to their customers.
Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and long-standing investors in the technology industry. Francisco Partners’ investments have focused on companies that provide the best possible products and service for its customers and partners. Francisco Partners also has extensive experience partnering with corporations to execute divisional carve-outs with transactions such as Dell Inc’s Dell Software business and Discovery Inc.’s Discovery Education business.
The deal which is expected to close by the end of Q1 2024, is subject to regulatory approvals, completion of local labour processes and other customary closing conditions.
