In its largest ever acquisition, Toshiba is to buy IBM’s point-of-sale terminal business for an estimated $850m.

The deal between IBM and Toshiba Tec. is anticipated to close late in the second quarter, or early in the third. The point-of-sale systems used by retailers, which include both hardware and software, to process and record transactions, manage inventory and collect and analyse data, will be bought solely by Toshiba Tech.

According to Hideki Yasuda, analyst at Ace Securities Co. in Tokyo the deal “will have a major impact for Toshiba Tec, [it]will be able to expand its POS business with the acquisition, as IBM already has customers and can lure new ones with its brand.”