IBM needed an OBS platform...
Well, prior to acquiring Cleversafe, IBM did not have an OBS story to tell much less sell to customers. GPFS is not an object store, and IBM's messing around with Swift was not getting them anywhere. So IBM pulled out its checkbook and wrote a big one for Cleversafe. 10x funding is not an unreasonable payday for the people and investors at Cleversafe. You may recall that back in the day IBM paid $3B in cash for Lotus, which was one-third of their available cash. Another thing to consider about the Cleversafe acquisition is the 200+ patents obtained by Cleversafe, and the fact that the CIA is one of Cleversafe's customers and investors (through a CIA associated company). IBM has a long history as a trusted IT provider to federal agencies, so I'm sure the CIA is happy to see that IBM has their back when it comes to OBS.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
