Unica Acquires Pivotal Veracity, Gains Deliverability Analytics
Cash deal builds on partnership that began last summer.
Cash deal builds on partnership that began last summer.
Marketing software firm Unica has bought e-mail deliverability vendor Pivotal Veracity for $17.8 million in cash, the companies announced earlier today. The acquisition follows up a partnership born in August that involved implementing Pivotal Veracity’s deliverability and rendering analytics into the “Unica 8” and “OnDemand” platforms.
It didn’t take long before Unica was impressed enough with the results to make a purchase offer, suggested Elana Anderson, VP of products for Unica. “We’ve had great feedback from the marketplace [since the product integration],” she explained. “A lot of companies have used our capabilities to identify and figure out who they wanted to message to. Now to be able to complete that loop with the deliverability management capabilities simplifies the overall process they have to go through.”
With the technology in tow, Unica can offer content rendering stats according to ISP (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail), e-mail client (Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.), and device (PCs, Macs, and smartphones). For deliverability and reputation management, the Waltham, MA-based firm can report what e-mails are landing in the inbox, spam folder, trash folder, or a personal folder.
Anderson added that Pivotal Veracity’s consultation abilities for list cleaning/management will augment Unica’s offering. The company also looks to leverage Pivotal Veracity’s MailboxIQ program. The system lets e-mailers see how recipients interact with messages according to day of the week and time of day, as well as learn which campaigns are garnering social media buzz.
While their client lists overlap a bit, Pivotal Veracity brings a number of significant names to Unica, including Merck, IMB, Classmates.com, Digitas, Nestle, and Sears. The Phoenix-based Pivotal Veracity’s executive team — CEO Deirdre Baird, COO Michelle Eichner, and CFO Charles Goetz — will be kept intact and won’t relocate, according to Anderson. She stated that no layoffs will result from the acquisition, while “one or two” employees may be asked to relocate.
Anderson said the Pivotal Veracity brand will also remain — for the time being. “The long-term intent is to incorporate Pivotal Veracity under the Unica brand,” she said. “And what the product names will be at that point…I can’t really tell you. We’ll keep the Pivotal Veracity Web site up. For now, we will offer Pivotal Veracity as another product line within Unica. You’ll see those changes start to take place on our Web site in the next couple of days.”