IBM buys AlchemyAPI to boost Watson computing unit

International Business Machines Corp said on Wednesday it had acquired AlchemyAPI, a fast-growing startup selling software that collects and analyses unstructured text and data in ways big enterprises, website publishers and advertisers find useful. The purchase is designed to boost IBM's push into more human-like computing services, based around its Watson technology, which can sift huge amounts of data, learn from the results and respond to spoken questions. IBM is trying to build a big b