Dell acquires StatSoft, adds analytics to software stack
Summary: StatSoft's flagship software is Statistica Enterprise, which filters and analyzes data from multiple repositories. — Dell on Monday said it acquired StatSoft, a company that specializes in analytics and data visualization software.
Context & Ripple Effects
StatSoft is the latest step in Dell's two-year push to buy its way out of the PC business: it picked up security vendor SonicWALL in March 2012, bought three companies in four days that same spring starting with Make Technologies, and was reported to be weighing a Quest Software deal for computer-management tools in May 2012. Analytics closes the loop from managing infrastructure to analyzing what runs on it.
Statistica Enterprise, which filters and analyzes data across multiple repositories, gives Dell a named product in a market where IBM, SAP and Oracle already sell analytics alongside their own hardware. The story traveled unusually widely on announcement day — VentureBeat, eWeek, SiliconANGLE, ITworld and others all picked it up, plus Dell's own Direct2Dell blog.
First-order effects
- StatSoft's existing Statistica Enterprise customers now have Dell as their vendor, and Dell's enterprise sales force gains an analytics line item to attach to server, storage and services deals.
- Dell's software division, built through the 2012 acquisition spree (SonicWALL for security, Make Technologies for application migration), adds data visualization as its third pillar without having to build one.
Second-order effects
- Rivals bundling hardware with software — IBM, Oracle, HP — face a competitor that can now pitch a cheaper full-stack alternative to mid-market buyers who cannot afford top-tier analytics suites.
- Other mid-sized independent analytics vendors become more obvious acquisition targets as infrastructure players race to complete their stacks rather than license third-party tools.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the analytics market stratifies: large vendors assemble end-to-end hardware-plus-software data platforms through acquisition, squeezing standalone toolmakers toward either being bought or competing on niche depth.
- For Dell specifically, each software purchase deepens its bet that margins live in services and recurring licenses rather than PCs — a structural repositioning of a hardware brand into an enterprise solutions vendor.
The trend: Hardware-centric vendors are acquiring analytics and management software to convert commodity-server relationships into higher-margin, locked-in enterprise data platforms.