Thursday, October 18, 2007

Acquisitions Continue in the Testing Market

Interwoven announced yesterday its intentions to acquire Optimost for $52 million in cash, marking the second acquisition in the burgeoning multivariate testing market in just 45 days.

The acquisition capitalizes on resounding synergies between the Interwoven’s content management solution and Optimost’s multivariate testing capabilities. As the web shifts to an increasingly dynamic content delivery model, it makes perfect sense to interject a solution that determines which content is most effective using a testing methodology. This capability aligns with Interwoven’s segmentation and analytics solution by providing a vehicle to deliver content to specific segments and optimize the message to achieve the greatest relevance.

The companies stated their intentions to provide Optimost’s managed testing solution, (delivered as Software as a Service) independently, or in conjunction with Interwoven’s content management offerings. This news will have minimal impact on existing Optimost customers, except that for those currently shopping for a CMS, who may now narrowed their short list of vendors. Interwoven customers will have access to a testing solution that will presumably have the tightest integration with their CMS and may entice non-adopters to begin testing their sites.

With just a handful of private multivariate testing vendors left, expect to see the remaining solutions usurped by larger companies seeking to interject science into their conversions and content delivery processes.

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