The privately held company is expected to expand IBM’s business analytics for targeted marketing capabilities, using a cloud-based model for insight into internal and external consumer interactions through social media networks.
“With this acquisition Cormetrics finds themselves a permanent home,” says Joe Stanhope, senior analyst for Forrester Research. IBM provides a large, stable and international base with a substantial level of stability and credibility.
“Ever since Omniture was acquired by Adobe there have been a lot of questions about whether other Web analytics vendors would find new homes,” says Stanhope. “Some people saw an acquisition as inevitable - the question was who?”
Coremetrics will become part of IBM’s application and integration middleware portfolio, joining IBM WebSphere, says Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM WebSphere. “We made the choice in terms of a home with the WebSphere, because of the immediacy of the retail and financial service capabilities.”
That said, Hayman described Coremetrics capabilities as broadly applicable across the company. “There are opportunities and synergies in multiple points across IBM for Coremetrics,” says Hayman, including vertical industry frameworks, with Cognos and SPSS core analytics capabilities
“Surely they have bigger plans for [Coremetrics] instead of letting it sit there on its own,” says Stanhope. “They will continue to extend the product on its own and the look for other synergies across the company.”
For a company like IBM this is pretty small financial acquisition, Stanhope added. “While the financial details were not disclosed, this is not going to move the needle for IBM in terms of revenue or profits, but it’s a strategic play. They give a lot of credit to customer intelligence.”
Read Tony Byrne’s take on Web analytics and its future prospects – “Web Analytics Comes of Age.”
Jim Ericson blogged on whether Google analytics and its no-cost services will impact core paid providers like Omniture, WebTrends, Coremetrics and Unica. Click here to read “Will Google Gobble Web Analytics?”
Click here to register for the episode of DM Radio on August 12, 2010 – “Where Do They Go? Web Analytics for Success.”
Adrienne Baker is associate editor at Information Management. She can be reached at adrienne.baker@sourcemedia.com.
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