Cognos approaches Applix Inc. with a $339-million offer to purchase the Westborough, Mass.-based software company. The cash buyout will allow Cognos to broaden its business solution offerings by adding Applix’s performance analytics software to the Cognos 8 suite of products, enabling new features such as profitability analysis. The acquisition will also give Cognos access to the Applix TM1, a patented 64-bit in-memory multidimensional online analytical processing (OLAP) server. The purchase would be Cognos's second of the year. In January, it bought privately held business intelligence solutions company Celequest Corp. for an undisclosed sum. With more than 3,000 customers worldwide, Applix has US$61.2 in annual revenue and year-over-year growth of 45%. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the calendar year.