Web analytics service provider Webtrends has acquired social marketing company Transpond to broaden its offerings beyond measurement. Financial terms of the deal, signed August 10, were not disclosed.
Webtrends, a digital marketing firm that has focused heavily on web analytics, wanted to leverage its data to take action, said Casey Carey, VP of product management at Webtrends.
Transpond’s platform, which gives brands the means to create, publish, manage and track engagement with their content across mobile and social media, will allow Webtrends to continue to expand into creating multichannel and digital marketing campaigns for clients.
“It’s a natural next step for Webtrends to move from being a web analytics company, to being focused on digital marketing optimization across the web,” said Carey.
The company will also create the Webtrends Apps product line through the acquisition. The Transpond brand will be discontinued, said Carey.
Peter Yared, former CEO of Transpond, now serves as VP of apps at Webtrends, said Casey, who added that no layoffs will occur as a result of the acquisition. He added that Webtrends plans to make new hires across the board, including business development, sales, services and support. It will keep Transpond’s San Francisco office.
Webtrends launched its Facebook analytics program earlier this year, said Casey. Marketers starting to make investments in that space, such as Coca-Cola and Wendy’s, approached the company, which became acquainted with Transpond around the same time.
“We got to talking and realized that by joining forces in more than a strategic partnership, we could provide significant value to today’s digital marketers,” said Casey.
“Over the last three years, the market has matured significantly — our customers now want to do multichannel integrated campaigns. For a long time, there was a lot of experimental ad money getting chucked at Facebook and the iPhone. Now, people want very measurable ROI,” said Yared. “That helps drive marketing decisions that our customers would want, and their customers want an ‘easy on-ramp’ to get onto mobile and social.”
