Yesterday it was announced that Dell acquired StatSoft, a 30+ year old business analytics software provider. Yes, you read that correctly. 30+ years old. That means that this innovative analytics company existed before the Internet, before mobile, before SaaS, before big data…

So, why would Dell acquire an old analytics company? It’s no secret that big data and advanced analytics is the hot market to be in right now. Clearly one motive for a hardware-laden company like Dell is to continue to buy recurring revenue streams and nice margins, both of which they get from StatSoft. However, there is more going on here just below the surface. StatSoft, though old and not entirely innovative, has what very few companies in the market today have: a predictive platform. And, software vendors with an actual platform for building and deploying predictive analytics are a rare breed indeed.