Confluent (CFLT) Soars 30% on $11-Billion IBM Merger

We recently published 10 Stocks Delivering Explosive 18-190% Gains. Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) is one of the last week’s heavy gainers.

Confluent soared by 29.9 percent week-on-week, as investors loaded portfolios following news that it was set to be acquired by IBM for $11 billion.

On Monday, Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) said that it officially inked a definitive agreement with IBM, under which the latter would acquire all of the former’s outstanding common shares at a price of $31 apiece.

The transaction has already secured the approval of both firms’ board of directors, as well as Confluent, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:CFLT) largest shareholders who hold a combined 62 percent of its stake.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the middle of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of minority shareholders and other regulatory approvals.

“IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications, and APIs. Data is spread across public and private clouds, datacenter,s and countless technology providers,” IBM Chairman, President, and CEO Arvind Krishna.

“With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI,” he noted.

While we acknowledge the potential of CFLT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.