IBM announces sale of weather forecasting business to reposition itself around cloud computing

On the evening of August 22, Beijing time, IBM announced today that it will sell its weather forecasting business to private equity firm Francisco Partners.

Under the agreement, Francisco Partners will buy IBM's consumer-oriented weather services, such as Weather.com, and corporate-oriented services for an undisclosed amount.

Upon completion of the transaction, Francisco Partners will operate the above business as an independent company. IBM will retain its sustainability software suite business.

"with Francisco Partners's investment and resources, Weather Company will seek businesses other than weather forecasts to bring new tools and experiences to users to help them understand how the weather affects all aspects of their lives, such as healthy living," the companies said in a statement.

IBM has been considering selling the business unit since at least April. IBM's weather business was acquired through a deal in 2015. At the time, IBM announced the acquisition of parts of weather forecasting company Weather Company, including B2B, mobile networking and cloud computing, as part of its plans to enter the Internet of things market.

But since then, IBM has sought to reposition itself around cloud computing and sold Kyndryl, its traditional infrastructure services unit. Last year, IBM spun off part of its Watson Health business to Francisco Partners for more than $1 billion. In January this year, IBM announced about 3900 job cuts, mainly those left behind after the divestiture of these departments.