In recent years Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and SAP between them have spent more than $15 billion on buying software firms specialising in data management and analytics.
Why not do both? The major disadvantage with the seed fund approach is that you have no idea what you'll get out of it or how long it will take. If you but SPSS, it might cost you more, but you know exactly what you're getting and when you'll be getting it, which is a huge advantage if you feel you're in a hurry.
That's huge. Does that sound right?