The Weather Channel has operated as two separate entities for nearly eight years. There is the linear cable channel, The Weather Channel, owned by Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios since 2018. Then there are the digital assets of the business owned by IBM, including The Weather Channel mobile app and websites, Weather.com, Weather Underground, and Storm Radar.
IBM announced on Tuesday that it would be selling its digital weather properties, also known as The Weather Company, to Francisco Partners, a tech-focused private equity firm, for an undisclosed amount. As part of the deal, The Weather Company will become a stand-alone business with a consumer-facing unit that will introduce new tools for users related to health and well-being.
The deal, which is expected to close in April 2024, will also include the weather unit’s forecasting science and tech platform and enterprise data services for the broadcast, media, aviation, and ad tech industries. IBM will retain access to the company’s weather data, which it uses to power some of the artificial intelligence models it sells to enterprise clients.
IBM acquired The Weather Company in 2015 for $2 billion from the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, and it says that the weather unit serves an average of 415 million people monthly.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report back in April that IBM was looking to offload The Weather Company, with the deal expected to be valued at more than $1 billion.