IBM will buy the European cloud startup Nordcloud

(Reuters) – International Business Machines will acquire European start-up Nordcloud, the latest in a series of acquisitions for the 109-year-old company as it prepares a mega spin-off focused on cloud computing.

The world’s first major computing company has set its sights on the so-called hybrid cloud, where it sees a $1 trillion market opportunity as more companies use a combination of their own data centers and leased computing resources to manage and process data.

IBM did not disclose on Monday how much it paid the Finnish company.

Since taking office in April, CEO Arvind Krishna has acquired at least five hybrid cloud startups. Krishna was the chief architect of last year’s $34 billion IBM deal for Red Hat.

IBM CEO Jim Whitehurst said in an interview with Reuters on Monday that the company is unlikely to make a major acquisition in the cloud sector in the near future.

“I don’t see the need for some big $10 billion acquisition,” Whitehurst said.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)