NetGravity and IBM Corp have announced a wide-ranging technology and marketing alliance that caused the shares of Nasdaq newcomer NetGravity to leap on Tuesday. Under the terms of the deal, each company will co-market the other’s internet software, which means IBM will point its customers looking for online advertising management software towards NetGravity, while NetGravity will in turn resell IBM’s Net.Commerce e-commerce server package. In addition, NetGravity has ported its AdServer technology to IBM’s AIX Unix flavor and the beta of that will be going to beta within 30 days. It is already available on Solaris and Windows NT, and IBM will also sell the NT version with its NetFinity servers. AdCenter, NetGravity’s outsourced version of its product, which has been in testing for the past few months and went live yesterday, will be hosted by IBM. For companies that do not want to commit to buying AdServer, it offers the opportunity to use the technology through a browser on a pricing model based on usage, similar to that employed by virtual private networking companies, says NetGravity. Furthermore, IBM has chosen AdServer as its own in-house advertising management software, replacing the proprietary software developed by its ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather. The agency will also work with the AdServer product on IBM’s behalf. IBM’s VP e-business solutions Nancy Faigen says it was when IBM was making its build-versus-buy decision for its own advertising management technology that it first encountered NetGravity. She claims no money is changing hands and that IBM has no stake in San Mateo-based NetGravity. NetGravity closed up $2.625, or 16% at $18.9375, on more than five times its averega daily volume.
