Andromedia Inc, maker of web traffic analysis and reporting tool Aria (CI No 3,421), is to merge with San Francisco, California- based collaborative filtering start-up LikeMinds. Collaborative filtering identifies groups of buyers and claims to be able to predict a web surfer’s behavior and tastes based on past records of similar individuals. LikeMinds founder John Hey invented and first patented collaborative filtering technology in the 1980s.
The companies say that between them they can provide all the tools marketers need to gather web traffic information, make sense of it, act on it and measure the results of what they do. Aria can handle the first and last steps – collection and reporting – while LikeMinds specializes in identifying patterns of behavior and responding appropriately.
Web sites throw off a tremendous amount of data, explains LikeMinds CEO Steve Kanzler. His customers had been coming to him looking for ways to sort through that data and integrate it with LikeMind’s personalization and response software. In a similar way, Andromedia CEO Kent Godfrey says people were coming to his company wanting to add customization and real time response to the analysis and reporting they obtained through Aria.
The deal has been in the making since Spring Internet World in Los Angeles. We’re already deep into the technical integration of these products, Godfrey says. The combined company will take the Andromedia name, retaining the LikeMinds brand for the personalization and collaborative filtering software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. รก
