Extending its Smarter Commerce initiative, IBM announced a definitive agreement today to acquire Tealeaf Technology, Inc., a leading provider of customer experience analytics software that helps organizations react more swiftly to consumer trends in today's digital marketplace. Financial details were not disclosed.
The need to deliver a seamless mobile experience has become increasingly critical to chief marketing officers (CMOs) with global online commerce expected to hit $1 trillion by 2014 and mobile commerce $200 billion by 2015.
Tealeaf, based in San Francisco, California with additional offices in Europe, has over 450 customers worldwide including 30 Fortune 100 companies, predominantly in financial services, travel, retail and communications services. Current clients include Dell, Wells Fargo, Air Canada, GEICO, Orbitz, Expedia, Zappos, ING Direct, and Best Buy.
In the developing digital marketplace, companies need to be highly responsive to customer behavior, so a better understanding of a customer's experience on websites and mobile devices offers a competitive advantage.
Tealeaf software records and analyzes a customer's website and mobile interactions, so marketers can spot patterns and address issues in application design and provide a more streamlined customer experience.
"Marketers must continuously deliver a better customer experience on both the Web and mobile devices to meet the expectations of today's empowered consumers," said Craig Hayman, General Manager of Industry Solutions at IBM.
"With these new capabilities from Tealeaf, we can not only provide chief marketing officers and other marketing leaders the qualitative insights into how customers actually experience their brands, but show them how to react in real time across marketing, sales and service."
Tealeaf will be integrated into IBM's Enterprise Marketing and Management (EMM) Group, which includes previously acquired assets from Coremetrics, Unica and DemandTec. IBM has invested more than $3 billion in building its Smarter Commerce initiative, a key driver of growth and profitability.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearance and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012.
