IBM to buy AT&T's Sterling unit for $1.4B

NEW YORK – IBM says it is buying AT&T's Sterling Commerce unit, which makes business software, for $1.4 billion. The deal announced Monday would be IBM Corp.'s largest acquisition since it bought Cognos in 2008. AT&T Inc., then known as SBC Communications, paid $3.9 billion for Sterling in 2000, near the peak of the Internet bubble. The unit, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, has little connection to AT&T's main telecommunications business. —AP