Omniture Optimizes Its Solutions Through Acquistion

By Barb Mosher | Published Oct 21, 2008

Who says it's better to build your own than buy someone else's? Well not many actually. Omniture seems to understand this, because they have chosen to expand their solutions for site search and merchandising through the acquisition of assets from Mercado, another search provider.

The Mercado Acquisition

Omniture provides business optimization solutions that help organizations manage and enhance the customer experience on their websites and through offline channels. In two words — web analytics.

They have agreed to pay Mercado roughly US$ 6.5 million cash and take on certain related operating liabilities for some of their assets related to site search and merchandising. This is expected to improve Omniture's offering in the retail sector.

Mercado's software already integrates with Omniture SiteCatalyst through the Omniture Genesis software. So there shouldn't be much effort required to merge the two offerings together completely. Genesis is a solution that automates the integration of these types of tools into a central location. It provides centralized reporting and measurement, among other things.

The acquisition is subject to some government approvals in Israel (Mercado has an office over there), but it is expected to be finalized by year end.

The Yahoo Analytics Effect

Competition for web analytics software is getting stiffer with the addition of the free Yahoo Web Analytics offering. According to CMS Watch, we should expect to see more integrated offerings like this one between Omniture and Mercado as web analytic vendors struggle to stay competitive.