Various sources are reporting that marketing intelligence firm Hitwise has been acquired by Experian for $240 million. This was a cash deal. This is a pretty sweet deal for the Hitwise team that began in 1998. According to the Hitwise website, the Hitwise online competitive intelligence service provides daily insights on how 25 million people interact with over 900,000 websites in 160+ industries.
Experian is a global leader in providing analytical and information services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions. Experian employs more than 12,500 people in over 30 countries with over $3.1 billion in annual sales.
Here is the official press release of the acquisition of Hitwise. One of the interesting statements made in the release was that "Hitwise strengthens Experian’s position in market research by bringing new, unique data to Experian on how consumers behave online". This is something near and dear to my heart as here at Enquiro we have focused our research on online behaviour for a number of years now.
The acquisition is expected to close in May 2007.
Experian Official Site
Hitwise Official Site
Labels: Experian, Hitwise
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