Teradata to Acquire an Integrated Marketing Co. for $525M
December 22, 2010 No CommentsBANGALORE, 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.