11.10.2008   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 259/26

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case COMP/M.5317 — IBM/ILOG)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2008/C 259/11)

1.

On 6 October 2008, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 and following a referral pursuant to Article 4(5) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertaking International Business Machines Corporation (‘IBM’, USA) acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Council Regulation control of the whole of the undertaking ILOG SA (‘ILOG’, France) by way of public bid announced on 28 July 2008.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—

for IBM: development, production and marketing of a wide variety of information technology (‘IT’) solutions, comprising software, computer systems, storage devices, microelectronics, and services including consulting and IT infrastructure services,

—

for ILOG: development, production and marketing of business rules management software, optimization software, visualisation software and supply chain management applications.

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 139/2004. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax ((32-2) 296 43 01 or 296 72 44) or by post, under reference number COMP/M.5317 — IBM/ILOG, to the following address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

J-70

B-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1.