IBM buys DemandTec Expand Cloud Analytics Smart Business Solution

April 16 News, IBM and DemandTec recently announced that the two sides have signed a final acquisition agreement, IBM will be 13.2 U.S. dollars per share, cash adjustment of about 440 million U.S. dollars net price, and the full cash transaction method to acquire DemandTec.

The acquisition of DemandTec will further expand IBM's smart business initiatives to help companies better define the best price points and product mix based on customer buying trends by adding cloud-based pricing, promotions, and other business and market analytics capabilities.

In today's era of mobile and social networking, customer buying patterns are changing rapidly, and companies are struggling to adapt to their customers ' needs. The new digital market environment requires enterprises to respond quickly to consumer demand. The ability to adapt quickly to market changes has become an important competitive advantage for global enterprises, whether it is to establish and implement a correct pricing strategy or to automatically adjust pricing based on online and offline data.

IBM estimates that in software alone, the smart business market has 20 billion of dollars worth of business opportunities. If these functions are extended to the cloud, the enterprise will have instant access to consumer information and rapid return on investment.

DemandTec provides cloud-based analytics software that enables companies to test different customer buying scenarios, including online purchases and store purchases. As a result, companies can find buying trends, gain insight from shoppers, and develop more rational pricing, promotion, and product classification decisions to increase revenue and profits.

For example, if you can quickly and accurately analyze consumer trends, retailers will be able to predict consumer responses to price changes before making important pricing decisions. The brand Manager can adjust the marketing mix of the product to improve the sales performance of the store channel, and the merchant can cooperate with the supplier to discuss the segmentation of the consumer market and make the best sales plan. By understanding the different channels of consumer groups, enterprises can adapt to the rising demand for customers faster.

"IBM Smart Business is redefining the way brands behave to help brands carry out sourcing, marketing, sales and service work in accordance with customer expectations," said Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM Software group Global Industry solutions. Applying science to pricing and promotional work is an important part of this strategy. DemandTec's strong partnership with IBM will help market and sales executives in retail and other industries increase revenue and profits. ”

Dan Fishback, president and chief executive of DemandTec, said: "DemandTec is able to independently improve customer pricing and promotional strategies, and to help retailers and manufacturers collaborate on plans through cloud services, an unprecedented ability." IBM Smart Business and DemandTec is a perfect combination. IBM is the only vendor that integrates pricing and promotional offerings into a powerful suite of solutions that can support the procurement, marketing, sales, and service processes of the enterprise. ”

Smart Business is an important initiative launched by IBM in March 2011, and IBM is recognized as a market leader in the various industry categories involved in this strategy. And DemandTec will support companies to leverage cloud computing services to gain insights into customer sales and pricing preferences to better market, sell, and deliver products and services at the right price, at a suitable time and place, to further consolidate IBM's lead. DemandTec also extends IBM's SaaS strategy by bringing an ordered product portfolio to IBM's SaaS (software as a service) solution offerings.

DemandTec has a total of about 450 customers from retail, consumer products and other industries around the world. The company serves retail areas including daily necessities, pharmaceuticals, conveniences, consumer electronics, office supplies, clothing, department stores and fast food. Manufacturing clients include fast-changing consumer goods such as food, beverages and healthy bodies. DemandTec also has 31 patents in the field of pricing, response analysis and promotional analysis.

IBM will continue to support and enhance DemandTec technology based on the smart business strategy, and let the company's customers take advantage of the broader IBM portfolio while enjoying the legacy services. DemandTec will be subsumed under the IBM Software group, which is an important force in boosting IBM's growth and profitability.

DemandTec is headquartered in San Marco, California, with more than 350 employees and offices in Minneapolis, London, Paris and Bangalore.

This acquisition is subject to approval by DemandTec shareholders and subject to the necessary regulatory approval and compliance with other customary trading conditions. The transaction is expected to be completed in the 1th quarter of 2012.

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)