IBM acquires marketing automation firm Unica for $480M

Following a string of recent acquisitions, IBM has announced that it will purchase marketing automation software maker Unica for about $480 million — at a price of $21 a share.

In the past few months, IBM has gobbled up the real-time data compression firm Storwize, network compliance specialist BigFix, business software maker Sterling Commerce, and web analytics firm Coremetrics. The company has said it will spend $20 billion on acquisitions through 2015.

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The Unica buy will strengthen IBM”s existing portfolio of software meant to “help companies automate, manage, and accelerate core business processes across marketing, demand generation, sales, order processing and fulfillment” — which includes the aforementioned Sterling Commerce and Coremetrics purchases. It will allow IBM to better help businesses predict and analyze customer tastes and focus their marketing efforts.

The Waltham, Mass.-based Unica has more than 1,500 customers worldwide — including Best Buy, eBay, ING, and Monster. Its 500 employees will move to IBM’s Software Solutions Group, and its software will bolster IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization — which IBM describes as “a team of 5,000 consultants and a network of analytics solution centers” that’s backed by $11 billion in acquisition investments made over the past five years.

via Between the Lines