IBM agrees $480m deal to acquire marketing software firm Unica

Unica signed a multi-year deal to serve as IBM’s web analytics platform back in November, but now the company and its 500 employees look set to move in-house as part of IBM’s Software Solutions Group.

Aside from its NetInsight web analytics package, Unica also sells tools for marketing campaign management, customer data analysis, predictive analytics and lead management. Customers besides IBM include Best Buy, eBay, ING, Monster and Starwood.

Writing in a blog post, Unica CEO Yuchun Lee said: “Merging with IBM is a strong validation of our strategy. It demonstrates the growing importance of marketing technology as a key driver of business growth across all industries.”

IBM’s acquisition offer comes only two weeks after closing on the purchase of Coremetrics, a competitor to Unica in the web analytics space.

The Unica deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.