Under the terms of the deal, IBM will pay $50 per share in cash for SPSS. That’s a 43 percent premium over the company’s closing price Monday, but one that’s well worth it to IBM, which sees great value in SPSS’s specialized software and its expertise in data collection, predictive analysis and statistical modeling.

Big Blue says the acquisition will do great things for its newly-formed Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting structure, a unit that offers clients strategic guidance through data analysis.

This is IBM’s second business analytics-related acquisition this summer. In May, the company acquired data discovery technology provider Exeros for an undisclosed sum. When IBM CEO Sam Palmisano pledged earlier this year to “go on offense” in the recession by making acquisitions and investing in research, he wasn’t kidding. Business analytics powerhouse SAS best watch its back.

Bartley writes that “feedback from the channel is markedly more negative” than it was two to three months ago. He says the poor economy is resulting in month-over-month slowing in the online business analytics sector; he says Q4 activity is weaker than expected in what is normally a seasonally strong period. “In general, existing customers are not expected to increase their investments in 2009,” he writes. Bartley also says new customer growth is slowing; he expects a drop of 30-50 percent in 2009 in new customer additions.

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