IBM is beefing up its business analytics. Big Blue on Friday agreed to acquire Unica for $480 million in an all-cash transaction.
IBM bought the Waltham, Mass.-based analytics company to expand its software portfolio that analyzes and predicts customer preferences in order to develop more targeted marketing campaigns. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
“IBM understands the demands on today’s organizations to transform core business processes in functions such as marketing with intelligence and automation,” said Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM Industry Solutions. “Unica was a clear choice for IBM based on its power to automate a broad set of marketing capabilities and its established reputation for delivering customer success in marketing to organizations around the world.”
More Analytical Firepower
Unica brings IBM more than 1,500 global customers across a wide range of verticals such as financial services, insurance, retail telecommunications, travel and hospitality. Unica’s customers include Best Buy, eBay, ING, Monster, Starwood and U.S. Cellular. But IBM snapped up Unica for something more than a growing customer list.
The acquisition gives IBM more analytical firepower to help its customers automate, manage and accelerate core business processes across marketing, demand generation, sales, order processing, and fulfillment. Moreover, Unica fits into IBM’s bigger analytics picture, working with other acquisitions, such as Sterling Commerce and CoreMetrics, to improve its business-analytics portfolio.
“Depending on who you talk to, IBM has spent $10-plus billion building up the business intelligence and business analytics part of its software portfolio over the last few years,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
“There have been some very large pieces like Cognos. But what we’ve been seeing over the past few months is a shift in tactics where IBM has most of the analytics infrastructure pieces it needs right now. What IBM has been doing to…