Francisco Partners Buys The Weather Company from IBM

Francisco Partners, a tech-focused private equity firm, is acquiring the majority of The Weather Company assets from IBM, including The Weather Channel and related digital brands such as Weather.com, Weather Underground, and Storm Radar.

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close, which is expected to close by the end of the first quarter 2024, were not disclosed. The sale does not include the Weather Channel cable network.

The acquisition also includes The Weather Company enterprise products, which serve over 2,000 businesses in areas like television, aviation and advertising, as well as the science and technology platform that powers the company’s famous weather forecasts.

Big Blue will retain The Weather Channel’s sustainability software business post-purchase; namely its “environmental intelligence suite” for ESG reporting. It will also continue to use The Weather Company’s weather data for “climate-related use cases.”

“Over the last few years, we’ve evolved IBM to be a hybrid cloud and AI company. We regularly review our portfolio to make sure our business areas are core to that strategy, and today’s news reflects our continued focus on these two transformational technologies,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM.

Since inception in 1999, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology businesses. The company, which headquartered in San Francisco, has raised roughly $45 billion in capital.

Francisco Partners has undertaken corporate carveouts, including Dell’s Dell Software business and Discovery’s Discovery Education business, in addition to supporting or acquiring well-known tech platforms such as LegalZoom and New Relic.

The Weather Company will be returned to private equity ownership; until 2016, a consortium led by Blackstone and Bain Capital owned the company and operated The Weather Channel cable network.