Shopper Analytics Firm Sold for $95m

In the US, Internet infrastructure firm Akamai Technologies has acquired shopper analytics network acerno for $95m in cash. The deal is expected to close later this quarter.

acerno gathers online shopping behaviour and purchase data from its co-operative members - both retailers and manufacturers - to predict what consumers intend to buy and details about the products they are looking at online. This information is then used to serve up specific and relevant online ads.

This service will be combined with Akamai's newly launched 'Advertising Decision Solutions', to offer buyers and sellers of online advertising a fusion of real-time, anonymous web browsing information with anonymous online purchasing data.

'We plan to leverage and grow acerno's unique industry co-operative to enhance our new solutions,' explained Mike Afergan, Akamai's CTO and SVP of Advertising Decision Solutions. 'Our combined capabilities will provide ad networks, online publishers and Internet advertisers with real-time, actionable data to serve more relevant marketing messages.'

Many leading retailers currently contribute anonymous data to acerno, which is used in the firm's predictive models to determine why online shoppers actually browse, add merchandise to carts and eventually buy.

'Together, Akamai and acerno will be able leverage predictive and descriptive modeling for improving conversion rates,' added acerno's President and CEO Tom Sperry.

Web sites: www.akamai.com and www.acerno.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.