WebMethods inks EDS, Ariba deal

WebMethods Inc. (Nasdaq: WEBM) inked a deal Thursday with EDS (NYSE: EDS) and Ariba Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) to provide software and services.

The goal of the pact is to accelerate supplier integration with Ariba's Commerce Services Network (Ariba CSN). The deal could bring WebMethods $105 million over two years.

Shares in WebMethods, a provider of business-to-business integration tools, closed at 98.06 Wednesday. Shares in EDS closed at 47.81 and Ariba ended the day at 147. WebMethod's XML technology has made it one of the year's hot business models to watch.

The offering, to be called "webMethods Ariba Supplier Solution'' allows suppliers to integrate their back-end systems with Ariba CSN for all order transactions. Ariba currently has more than 30,000 suppliers using Ariba CSN to conduct business electronically.

The deal builds on an existing partnership between webMethods and EDS, which have collaborated on projects at Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), GE Power Systems and others. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, EDS will be webMethods' preferred systems integration for Ariba, and will resell the webMethods B2Bi Solution Suite.

Reuters contributed to this report.