IBM acquires mainframe rival PSI

SILICON VALLEY — One way to make a nasty antitrust problem go away is to acquire the folks who are complaining about you. IBM (NYSE: IBM) did just that as it said this week that it would acquire Platform Solutions Inc. for an undisclosed price.

PSI had been complaining to European Union regulators that IBM was behaving in an anti-competitive manner in the mainframe computing software market.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association said that antitrust regulators should review the “extinguishing of competition in the mainframe market.”

IBM said PSI’s revenues are too small to require a review.