IBM to acquire MRO software for $740m
Boston: The world's biggest technology services company, International Business Machines Corp (IBM), has agreed to buy MRO Software Inc for $740m in cash as it expands its profitable software business.

IBM said it would pay $25.8 per share for MRO, equivalent to a 19 per cent premium on MRO's Wednesday closing price on Nasdaq.

Massachussets based MRO provides software and consulting to help companies buy, maintain and retire assets such as production equipment, facilities, transportation and information technology hardware and software.

IBM has bought 40 companies in the past three years, including $2bn of acquisitions last year. Earlier on Wednesday, IBM said it had bought privately held Webify Solutions, which helps insurers, healthcare companies and banks integrate corporate software systems.

IBM's software group had a gross profit margin of 84 per cent in the second quarter, compared with 26 per cent in services and 34 per cent in hardware.
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Pakistan moots free-trade pact with US
Washington: Pakistan has mooted the idea of a free-trade pact with the United States that would create jobs and prosperity in the country. Commerce Minister of Pakistan Humayun Akhtar Khan told the Institute for International Economics (IIE) that $1 billion in Pakistani garment exports to the United States would create 200,000 jobs, affecting more than a million people in a country where families average six members.

He said that a bilateral free-trade agreement would 'help Pakistan enormously' but also open the South Asian nuclear power's market of 150 million people to U.S. business.

The proposed FTA with the US was first proposed by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who believes that 'the long-term solution to handling the extremism problem in Pakistan is to economically improve Pakistan, Khan said.
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