Salesforce, Teradata Acquire Cloud Computing Firms
Teradata (NYSE: TDC) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) are doing a little last-minute Christmas shopping, as the data warehousing and CRM vendors are acquiring a pair of cloud computing companies.
Data warehousing and business analytics vendor Teradata has acquired Aprimo, a maker of Web-based integrated marketing software, for $535 million. And online CRM leader Salesforce has acquired email contact management startup Etacts.
Etacts, which also offered a Gmail plug-in for its service, raised about $700,000 from a list of angel investors and tech luminaries that included Ron Conway, Joshua Schachter, Jawed Karim, Eric Hahn and Ashton Kutcher (yes, the actor). Salesforce declined to reveal plans for the acquisition, which follows the company's acquisition of cloud Ruby developer company Heroku earlier this month. Both companies were also backed by incubator Y Combinator.
Teradata, meanwhile, said it will use Aprimo's cloud-based integrated marketing software to combine “powerful business analytics with integrated marketing solutions to enable corporations to improve and optimize marketing performance with data-driven insights.”
Teradata said the Integrated Marketing Management (IMM) business is a growing $5 billion market, “and is emerging as a critical focus for businesses, representing one of the most strategic and largest areas of investment for most corporations.” The company cited a Gartner statistic that companies that develop an Integrated Marketing Management strategy “will deliver a 50 percent higher return on marketing investment than those that don't.”
Teradata's acquisition follows IBM's (NYSE: IBM) move into marketing analytics with the purchase of Unica earlier this year.
Aprimo claims more than 150,000 users and at least 36 of the Fortune 100 as customers.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.
