Teradata to Acquire an Integrated Marketing Co. for $525M

BANGALORE, Dec 22 (Reuters) – Enterprise data warehousing company Teradata Corp (TDC.N) agreed to buy privately held Aprimo for $525 million to expand into cloud software services, as it gears to meet challenges from larger rivals IBM (IBM.N) and Oracle (ORCL.O).

Indianapolis-based Aprimo provides software to its enterprise customers, who use it to analyze data to map out their marketing and advertising efforts.

Cloud computing — a technology that allows users to access data, software and services over the Internet and corporate networks — is being touted as the next big trend in the technology sector.

Companies like Teradata, Oracle, EMC Corp (EMC.N) and IBM are shifting their focus from increasingly commoditized hardware to higher-margin software and services, particularly analytics, which help clients analyze market data to plot trends or prevent fraud.

Teradata’s peers — Netezza Inc and 3PAR — have been snapped up in recent months by IBM and HP (HPQ.N) respectively.

The Aprimo deal follows IBM’s $480 million purchase of marketing software firm Unica Corp, Aprimo’s rival, in October. [ID:nN13175286]

BRANCHING OUT

The Aprimo buy appears to be “uncharacteristic” of Teradata, Susquehanna Financial analyst Derrick Wood said.

This acquisition puts Teradata more into application space instead of just a database provider, Wood said.

“As competition in Teradata’s core market intensifies, it is looking towards related markets to branch out and diversify its total revenue,” Wedbush Securities’ Michael Nemeroff said.

Source: Reuters