What’s big data analytics worth in monetary terms? Hitachi gave a clue this week with news that it intends to acquire business intelligence company Pentaho for a sum rumored to range between $500 million and $600 million.

Hitachi says it expects to close the deal, which stands to be the largest big data acquisition to date, by June 2015. Pentaho will keep its brand after the acquisition and operate as a Hitachi company.

The companies have not announced an acqusition price, but rumor has it that it’s at least $500 million.

In announcing the acquisition plans, Hitachi is emphasizing machine data and the Internet of Things (IoT), which Pentaho has focused on addressing through its data analytics platform. “This acquisition helps to fulfill Hitachi’s strategy of delivering business innovations that integrate machine data, information technology, and analytics,” Hitachi said in a statement.

Pentaho, for its part, is also playing up the IoT angle. “We are pleased to join the Hitachi Data Systems family and truly believe our complementary set of solutions will accelerate the adoption of big data deployments and Internet of Things applications,” said Quentin Gallivan, chairman and chief executive officer at Pentaho. “The broad resources, expertise and global presence of Hitachi Data Systems, as well as Hitachi, Ltd., help ensure a strong foundation for Pentaho to continue to accelerate our big data analytics and data orchestration capabilities, bring new innovations to market, and expand support for current and future customers.”

The lesson for the channel? Machine-generated data analytics are key to the continuing growth of IoT. Companies can’t have one without the other, and they’re willing to pay a lot to get their hands on good data analytics tools that are adapted to IoT.