Rational Software Corp is joining Big Blue's stable of industry leaders-turned-business units after IBM announced its $2.1bn acquisition of the application modeling and design specialist. IBM announced the planned acquisition Friday of its application and Web services partner Rational, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, in a deal many believe will hurt Microsoft Corp rather than IBM's many Java rivals. IBM said it plans to merge Rational's business operations, products and 3,400 employees into the IBM software group, where Rational will become IBM's fifth brand, alongside Lotus, DB2, Tivoli and WebSphere.
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