<p>International Business Machines Corp. agreed to acquire Kenexa Corp. for approximately $1.3 billion in cash as the technology giant continues to beef up its arsenal of online software applications.</p><p>In buying Kenexa, IBM gains an unprofitable yet fast-growing company that is one of the leading suppliers of human resources software and consulting services that helps about 9,000 customers to recruit, retain and develop their employees.</p><p>IBM has traditionally stayed out of the applications business, preferring instead to concentrate on infrastructure software such as databases and Web servers. But over the last few years IBM has waded deeper into the business applications market through various acquisitions, potentially putting the company into more direct competition with some its application partners such as SAP AG.</p><p>The deal is the latest sign of increasing competition among enterprise software makers, which are aggressively using acquisitions that blur old boundaries in an attempt to transform their companies for the Internet age where software is delivered as a service over the Internet instead of sold in expensive licensing packages.</p><p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ibms-13-bln-kenexa-buy-beefs-up-online-software-2012-08-27">Keep reading...</a></p>