International Business Machines Corporation and EMC Corporation are among the suitors in discussions to acquire SoftLayer Technologies, Inc., three sources close to the matter said. The deal is expected to fetch over $2 billion. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are handling the sale, the source stated. AT&T, Inc. had initially stimulated SoftLayer's sale and in recent months had approached the company regarding exclusive discussions, one of the sources said. Two sources stated that AT&T is no longer involved in the sale process.

SoftLayer Technologies announced that its Catalyst startup program will support member companies from Startup Texas, a branch of Startup America. These promising startups can take advantage of generous IT credits on the SoftLayer platform for one full year, and get executive mentorship and valuable insights into how to build and scale the next killer application or game. Founded by Steve Case through a partnership between the Kauffman Foundation and the Case Foundation, Startup America supports a national network of entrepreneurial communities dedicated to advancing the success of American startups. Startup America helps thousands of entrepreneurial leaders, investors, mentors and executives work together to strengthen local communities and help young companies grow. As of Feb. 11, 2013, Startup Texas members can apply for membership in SoftLayer's world-renowned Catalyst startup program. Catalyst targets high-growth, technology-based startups, providing them with IT cloud infrastructure credits, executive mentoring, and engineering resources. They join the hundreds of U.S. companies -- from independents to graduates of top tier accelerators including TechStars, 500 Startups and Y Combinator -- who all enjoy the benefits of SoftLayer's Catalyst program.

10gen, Inc. and SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. announced the general availability of new on-demand MongoDB production-class systems available across SoftLayer’s global cloud infrastructure. The companies collaborated to engineer the systems, including optimized hardware and OS configurations, automated deployment of multi-data center clusters, and integrated monitoring and support. MongoDB Cloud Subscriptions is a new offering from 10gen of certified pre-built MongoDB systems. The company’s MongoDB systems will allow organizations to start using MongoDB more quickly by provisioning a complete solution set through SoftLayer’s portal or API for ease of management, administration and support. The flexible pay-as-you-go service simplifies the buying process and enables organizations to swiftly deploy highly scalable and available production-grade systems, accelerating the speed of deployment of big data applications and providing greater business agility. When customers purchase MongoDB systems from SoftLayer, they receive: Easy to design, order, and provision MongoDB environments making it simple to create and configure customized MongoDB clusters at the push of a button; High performance and superior reliability using pre-engineered systems that are optimized for running MongoDB including dedicated bare metal servers; MongoDB Gold Subscription Edition which includes subscriber edition features, 24x7 unlimited phone and web support, emergency patches and a commercial license; Pay-as-you-go pricing providing the flexibility of monthly billing and no long-term contracts. 10gen is working with partners like SoftLayer to bundle MongoDB systems that exhibit maximum performance and reliability, with MongoDB Cloud Subscription, and unique collaborative support with its partners. Customers will have access to pre-engineered systems, certified by 10gen, which are optimized to run MongoDB-built applications. SoftLayer’s MongoDB engineered systems include options from entry-level quad-core servers to powerful sixteen-core, high-performance computing nodes, all available on demand and in real-time via SoftLayer’s portal and API. These big data deployments may be fully integrated with other SoftLayer infrastructure solutions, with secure intra-architecture and inter-data center connectivity via the company’s global private network.