Strengthens enterprise mobility offerings that will now cover mobile application development, integration, security and management.

In a move that will help expand the enterprise mobile capabilities it offers to clients, IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire Worklight, a privately held Israeli-based provider of mobile software for smartphones and tablets.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Our clients are under increased pressure to meet the growing demands of a workforce and customer base that now treat mobility as mission critical to their business,” said Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM application and infrastructure middleware.

With this acquisition, IBM’s mobile offerings will cover mobile application development, integration, security and management. “Worklight will become an important piece of our mobility strategy, offering clients an open platform that helps speed the delivery of existing and new mobile applications to multiple devices,” the company said.

It will also enable secure connections between smartphone and tablet applications with enterprise IT systems.

“In the last year, we have seen surging demand from enterprises for mobility solutions that will support the unique set of challenges introduced by new smartphone and tablet platforms,” said Shahar Kaminitz, CEO and founder, Worklight. “Building on our existing partnership with IBM, the acquisition of Worklight further enhances IBM’s broad mobile portfolio. Now it will be easier than ever for our clients to offer secure and connected applications to their customers, business partners and employees.”

In a recent study conducted by IBM of more than 3,000 global CIOs, 75 percent of respondents identified mobility solutions as one of their top spending priorities.

The acquisition of Worklight is expected to close in 1Q12. Worklight will sit within IBM’s Software Group.

Worklight accelerates IBM’s comprehensive mobile portfolio, which is designed to help global corporations leverage the proliferation of all mobile devices, from laptops and smartphones to tablets.

IBM has been steadily investing in this space for more than a decade, both organically and through acquisitions.

This is the second acquisition for IBM this month. Earlier in the month the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Green Hat, a provider of software quality and testing solutions for the cloud and other environments.

Earlier, IBM’s new head Virginia Rometty had pledged to spend $20 billion by 2015 to acquire new companies.