May 19, 2014

Acxiom acquires ‘data onboarding’ company Liveramp

It's commonly known that data is a valuable asset in most industries. The results of data analysis can help companies make better informed business decisions, and in turn, increase profits. 

This ability is relevant to the marketing industry, as the more consumer data a company has, the more finely targeted its marketing efforts can become. Marketing software can make this process more effective.

It was recently announced that enterprise data and analytics software company Acxiom will be acquiring Liveramp, GigaOM reported. The two companies have already worked together as partners. Acxiom will acquire Liveramp in a $310 million cash deal.

"This is a win for the entire marketing industry," said Acxiom CEO Scott Howe in a press release. "This deal brings together the world's leading marketing data company with the emerging leader in data onboarding to create the industry's most comprehensive network of connections. Together, we will accelerate our vision of a connected ecosystem that delivers true one-to-one marketing at scale. The combination should help virtually everyone in the industry achieve better connections, better insights and better results."

Acxiom's data services allow marketers to create more personalized marketing and customer experiences. Liveramp focuses on data onboarding, meaning that their services allow offline customer data to become "actionable" online, according to the company's website. 

Through this acquisition strategy, Acxiom will be able to "bring a lot more offline data online for marketing purposes," Forbes noted

The merging of these two companies means that together they may be able to provide a stronger service that allows marketers to use consumer data to create increasingly targeted campaigns. Since their services are complementary the acquisition strategy may allow the companies to create a synergy and achieve more by merging.