IBM to Acquire Marketing Software Corporation Unica for $480 Million
IBM, the multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, North Castle, New York, has recently announced that it entered into definitive deal to acquire Unica, a leader in the marketing software solutions field. IBM will pay cash to acquire the corporation – it will pay $21 per share, which amounts to about $480 million in total.
The acquisition is expected to close in the 4th quarter of 2010; it first has to go through Unica shareholder approval, applicable regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions. Once the acquisition goes through, Unica will “expand IBM's ability to help organizations analyze and predict customer preferences and develop more targeted marketing campaigns.”
All 500 of Unica’s employees will join the IBM team and will work to achieve this goal. The 500 Unica employees will work wit the 5,000 consultants of IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization.
And now, some comments from the involved parties.
“IBM understands the demands on today's organizations to transform core business processes in functions such as marketing with intelligence and automation,” said General Manager with IBM Industry Solutions, Craig Hayman,. "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."
“Unica’s focus is to help our customers deliver marketing messages so relevant that they are perceived as a service to our clients' customers,” said Yuchun Lee, CEO of Unica Corp. “Together with IBM, we will bring our leading enterprise marketing management solutions to a wider set of customers worldwide and with a much broader, more comprehensive portfolio.”
In a blog post Yuchun Lee said the acquisition is a “strong validation of our strategy” and that it “demonstrates the growing importance of marketing technology as a key driver of business growth across all industries.” He also said he is “very excited” about working with IBM.
As a little side note, let me tell you what I am excited about. I am excited about the fact that IBM has asked its employees to make Firefox their default browser (see here).
The acquisition is expected to close in the 4th quarter of 2010; it first has to go through Unica shareholder approval, applicable regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions. Once the acquisition goes through, Unica will “expand IBM's ability to help organizations analyze and predict customer preferences and develop more targeted marketing campaigns.”
All 500 of Unica’s employees will join the IBM team and will work to achieve this goal. The 500 Unica employees will work wit the 5,000 consultants of IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization.
And now, some comments from the involved parties.
“IBM understands the demands on today's organizations to transform core business processes in functions such as marketing with intelligence and automation,” said General Manager with IBM Industry Solutions, Craig Hayman,. "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."
“Unica’s focus is to help our customers deliver marketing messages so relevant that they are perceived as a service to our clients' customers,” said Yuchun Lee, CEO of Unica Corp. “Together with IBM, we will bring our leading enterprise marketing management solutions to a wider set of customers worldwide and with a much broader, more comprehensive portfolio.”
In a blog post Yuchun Lee said the acquisition is a “strong validation of our strategy” and that it “demonstrates the growing importance of marketing technology as a key driver of business growth across all industries.” He also said he is “very excited” about working with IBM.
As a little side note, let me tell you what I am excited about. I am excited about the fact that IBM has asked its employees to make Firefox their default browser (see here).
