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IBM buys Unica for $480 million

By | August 13, 2010, 5:01am PDT

Summary: IBM acquires marketing software company Unica to complement its Coremetrics and Sterling Commerce purchases.

IBM said Friday it will buy Unica in a deal worth $480 million. Unica makes marketing automation software.

With the move IBM adds another software company to its arsenal. IBM recently acquired CoreMetrics and Sterling Commerce for its analytics lineup. IBM has said it will spend $20 billion on acquisitions through 2015.

Under the terms of the deal, IBM will pay $21 per share in cash for Unica. Unica shares closed at $9.55 on Thursday. IBM said it will take Unica’s software to better target marketing efforts and predict consumer behavior.

Big Blue has been increasingly targeting its analytics portfolio at key marketers. Unica counts Best Buy, eBay and Starwood as customers. Unica has both traditional and on-demand software products. Here’s a look at Unica’s software:

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Unica, IBM Corp., Financial Planning, Tools & Techniques, Finance, Management, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

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