MONTREAL AND JERUSALEM—International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), the world’s biggest computer-services company, bought Israeli data-storage provider XIV to meet growing demand for digital archiving.

Financial terms of the transaction won't be disclosed, Armonk, New York-based IBM said late Wednesday in a statement. XIV, based in Tel Aviv, will become part of IBM’s System Storage unit.

IBM has bought about two dozen data-management companies since 2001 to bolster sales of software for storing, accessing and analyzing data. That market will grow by 18 percent a year to $69 billion by 2009, IBM predicted in October.

Privately held XIV was founded in 2002 by five graduates of Talpiot, an Israeli military-technology training program. The company sold its first storage computer in 2005, according to its web site. The company has about 50 employees.

“It brings an innovative architecture,” David Vaughn, worldwide marketing manager for IBM’s storage division, said in an interview. XIV’s products can reliably handle large amounts of data using lower-cost, industry-standard parts, he said.

IBM probably paid between $300 million and $350 million for XIV, the daily newspaper Globes said, citing unidentified people.

In November IBM agreed to buy Cognos Inc. for $4.9 billion, its largest acquisition, to add the Ottawa-based company's software that tracks corporate performance. In August IBM purchased Princeton Softech Inc., based in Princeton, New Jersey, to add data-management software. (With reporting from Paris, Bloomberg)

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MONTREAL AND JERUSALEM—International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), the world’s biggest computer-services company, bought Israeli data-storage provider XIV to meet growing demand for digital archiving.