IXL Buys CRM Firm Tessera For $120M

Internet systems integrator iXL Enterprises is making a push into the customer relationship management market through a $120 million acquisition of Tessera Enterprise Systems.

Tessera provides companies with customer relationship management (CRM) systems as well as with access to data warehousing and data mining technologies. The Boston-based company, which has worked with such clients as Eddie Bauer, BankBoston and UniCredito Italiano, employs 130 people in three locations.

Bill Nussey, iXL's president, said the CRM market is expected to explode in the coming years as companies look to integrate their traditional customer relationship systems with Internet-based technologies.

CRM systems not only help to automate the process of answering customer questions, but also provide companies with the ability to mine customer data to identify prospects for new products or services.

"The combination of iXL's Internet expertise and Tessera's enterprisewide relationship management solutions will enable companies to better manage every customer, vendor, supplier and partner in today's increasingly fragmented e-business environment," Nussey said in a statement.

This is the first acquisition iXL has made since going public in June. The company has been on a rapid internal growth plan, adding 310 people in the second quarter of this year. It now employs 1,700 in five countries.

Nussey said the deal will have no immediate impact on earnings.