On October 28, 2015, IBM announced its acquisition of digital assets from The Weather Company—a holding company of Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group and NBCUniversal which owns The Weather Channel, including its weather data platforms (such as Weather Services International), websites (Weather.com and Weather Underground) and mobile apps. The acquisition seeks to use Watson for weather analytics and predictions. The acquisition does not include The Weather Channel itself, which will enter into a long-term licensing agreement with IBM for use of its data. The sale closed on January 29, 2016 