Don’t you just love getting the inside scoop on a big acquisition?

I do!

So, after reading that IBM had agreed to acquire web analytics fim Coremetrics for an undisclosed sum, I was happy to find former IBMer Mike Moran share some information you may not know. Like the fact that IBM originally sold its web analytics unit to Coremetrics!

IBM doesn’t make too many mistakes, but I thought it made a big one four years ago when it sold off its SurfAid Web analytics business to Coremetrics. Today, IBM reversed course in a very smart move when it swallowed up Coremetrics to tap into its customers’ growing need for Web analytics.

Apparently, Google’s acquisition of Urchin–and the subsequent launch of the free Google Analytics–took the wind out of IBM’s sails, so it decided to get out of the space. Fast forward four years and paid analytics vendors are still going strong and the lines are blurring between business intelligence and web analytics. Hence, the decision to acquire Coremetrics:

Buying Coremetrics assures them of a way that their clients can keep their data and allows IBM to analyze it for them.

Web analytics…the new black!