Business Intelligence (BI) software specialist Cognos has today announced plans to extend its analytics capabilities with the acquisition of performance management software specialist Applix.

The planned acquisition will see Cognos shell out $339m for the company with the deal expected to close before the end of the year.

Rob Ashe, chief executive of Cognos, said that the deal represented "a terrific strategic fit" for the company, providing it with 64-bit in-memory analytics functionality capable of delivering fast analysis of large data sets. "It will also bring into the company a very strong employee and customer base that has been committed to performance management through high-impact analytics, " he added.

The two companies said that their respective portfolios would face few integration problems with Applix's performance analytics capabilities fitting neatly with Cognos' planning and reporting suites.

In particular Cognos said that Applix's technology would give customers access to new functionality, including enhanced business rules management, profitability analysis and in-memory OLAP capabilities.

The proposed deal marks the latest step in the merging of the BI and business performance management sectors as leading reporting tools vendors such as Cognos and Business Intelligence have sought to bolster their in-depth analytics capabilities.

David Mahoney, president and CEO at Applix, welcomed the deal claiming it would give the company the scale to "further enhance its position" in the analytics market.