IBM completes PwC Consulting buy

IBM has completed its acquisition of PwC Consulting, a $3.5 billion stock-and-cash deal, the company said Wednesday. The move officially adds 30,000 PwC Consulting professionals to the payroll of IBM Global Services, already the biggest consulting and services organization in the industry today.

IBM will allocate 30,000 of its employees to join the PwC Consulting employees in a new division called IBM Business Consulting Services. The new group will use IBM's division of customers into different industry segments, but will use PwC Consulting's categorization of types of software and hardware those customers use. PwC Consulting is a subsidiary of PricewaterhouseCoopers.