IBM's partners.

IBM takes a while ( a long while! ) to decide, but does end up acquiring a good number of its long-time partners. Must be a most painful dating for the smaller partner!

Such partners acquired number in the hundreds over the last decade and is set to continue, since innovation most often comes from these small/nimble players.

A few on my watchlist (that also have been mentioned before as targets, but under different categories ) -

• Manugistics (MANU) : This is one area where IBM could do with some help. And ofcourse, Manugistics is in a very bad shape, so this should be very attractive to them.
  
• Mobius (MOBI): Was mentioned in Business Week recently. I listed it under my Document Management targets a while ago. IBM has been buying small content-management companies over the last few months and this could be the big one to complete its spree. Should help it compete with Documentum, now part of EMC
  
• Perficient (PRFT): This small player is very close to IBM, and will definitely end up in IBM's arms. It is just a question of when.
  
• Insignia (INSG) : These guys have a very useful/unique product for device management. While IBM is the most likely one to buy it, it could also end up with one of the wireless partners, Motorola or Texas Instruments.
  
• PeopleSoft (PSFT): Peoplesoft announced recently that it is taking its partnership with IBM to the next level. Will IBM be the white knight rescuing it from bad boy Larry ?
  

I own all the above. Manugistics and Perficient are still attractive at current prices. Insignia is highly speculative. Mobius and PeopleSoft are fairly valued, but IBM would surely be willing to pay a premium even at these levels.