New York (CNN) In a massive deal that could reshape cloud computing, IBM is acquiring open software company Red Hat for $34 billion.

The companies called the deal, which still needs approval from shareholders and regulators, the "most significant tech acquisition of 2018." The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2019.

"The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market," IBM chief Ginni Rometty said in a statement.

The cloud, simply, refers to software and services that run on the internet instead of your computer. Dropbox, Netflix, Flickr, Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365, Yahoo Mail are all cloud services.

These various platforms often don't allow data to easily move between them.

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