IBM will acquire i2 to accelerate its business analytics initiatives and help clients address crime, fraud and security threats. Financial terms were not disclosed.

With more than 4,500 customers in 150 countries, i2 is a provider of intelligence analytics for crime and fraud prevention. i2's clients span multiple sectors globally such as banking, defense, health care, insurance, law enforcement, national security and retail. i2 solutions are currently used by 12 of the top 20 retail banks globally and eight of the top 10 largest companies in the world.

Organizations in both the public and private sectors today are facing an exponential increase in "big data" -- information and intelligence coming from disparate and unstructured sources including social media, biometrics and criminal databases. When it is accessible to the people who need it, this information can be used to anticipate potential problems, make better, faster decisions, and coordinate resources to deliver exceptional service to citizens and customers.

Fraud and security threat reduction is of strategic importance across all industries today. According to FBI statistics, in 2009 there were 1.3 million violent crimes, 9.3 million property crimes and 6.3 million larceny/thefts in the United States. Consumer-facing fraud for retailers alone costs $100 billion a year in the United States. **

In response to these threats, businesses and government agencies are seeking to empower public safety officers, analysts, managers, detectives and investigators with industry-specific intelligence analysis and operational insight solutions. For example, government agencies today are concerned with increased threats to public safety, which are driving the need for secure information sharing.

Using IBM real-time analytical solutions in combination with the technologies of i2, public agencies and private enterprises battling fraud will now have the capability to better collect, analyze and process all the relevant data at their disposal.

In the past, data overload often led to critical information or opportunities being missed. Now local, state, and federal authorities can harness new intelligence to instantly detect and respond to security threats. Investigative leads can be identified quickly, helping government agencies solve crimes faster and keep officers and communities safer.

With IBM and i2, clients will have access to a comprehensive range of visualization and multidimensional analytics for the timely delivery of intelligence, including threat and fraud analytics. These tools will help analysts quickly identify connections, patterns and trends in complex data sets and easily model data in the way they think, in a single environment yielding faster analysis results, strategic reports and bulletins.

i2 will be integrated into IBM's Software Group, which is a key driver of growth and profitability for the company.