IBM has unveiled plans to acquire one of the few remaining stand-alone players in the security information and event management (SIEM) game, with its announcement that it will purchase privately held Q1 Labs of Waltham, Mass. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The announcement reaffirms IBM’s assertions that growth in the security business lies in analytics and predictive technologies. As previously noted by Infosecurity, Big Blue has been on a security spending spree over the last decade, as the company has acquired numerous security and analytics firms.

After the acquisition closes, IBM plans on folding Q1 Labs into its newly formed IBM Security Systems division, which will be headed by Brendan Hannigan – the current chief executive of Q1 Labs.

In a press release statement regarding the move, IBM said the Q1 purchase would “accelerate” its “efforts to help more intelligently secure the enterprise by applying analytics and by creating a security dashboard across the enterprise”. In addition, IBM said it plans on applying Q1 Lab’s analytical offerings across its portfolio of security products and services.

“Realigning IBM’s security expertise in a new division with a greater focus on analytics is a bold step IBM is taking to help clients stay ahead of growing security threats”, noted Robert LeBlanc, senior VP, IBM Middleware Software, when commenting on the newly formed IBM Security Systems. “By consolidating our global expertise, IBM clients will have access to the most comprehensive, insightful view of security across their people, data and infrastructure.”

IBM expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2011, pending regulatory approval.