Alterian to Acquire Leading Web Content Management Software Company Mediasurface

  
    
  
  
    
      Alterian 
      (LSE:ALN), the leading international integrated marketing platform 
      provider, today announced its intention to acquire leading web content 
      software company, Mediasurface (LSE:MSR). The addition of Mediasurface 
      will expand the online execution capabilities of Alterian’s 
      integrated marketing platform to encompass websites, corporate 
      intranets, extranets and social media channels all driven by Alterian’s 
      market leading analytics capability.
    
    
      “Online marketing is growing rapidly and has 
      become core to the overall marketing activity of an organisation. 
      Through the acquisition of Mediasurface, Alterian will create an 
      integrated marketing platform that combines online and offline customer 
      analytics with content and multi-channel execution to help marketers 
      optimise customer experiences across the web in real-time,” 
      said Alterian CEO David Eldridge.
    
    
      Eldridge continued, “This sets us apart from 
      both the traditional marketing suites as well as emerging online 
      players. We are already experiencing strong demand for our current 
      products with revenue growth of circa 40% at constant currencies and 
      profits doubling in the year ending 31st March 
      2008. We believe that Mediasurface products will provide even stronger 
      growth opportunities for Alterian in the future both in new customer 
      segments and new geographies. There is also a significant growth 
      opportunity in North America – a market in 
      which we have already proven our ability to execute with over half our 
      revenues now coming from the US.”
    
    
      The combination of Alterian and Mediasurface will empower approximately 
      1,000 marketing departments and a network of 100 channel partners across 
      26 countries while more than doubling Alterian’s 
      number of employees to approximately 300 worldwide. The transaction is 
      subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close late 
      June 2008.
    
    
      “Mediasurface is a growing company with great 
      products and great customers,” said Lawrence 
      Flynn, CEO of Mediasurface. “We are very 
      proud of the business we have built and appreciate that Alterian sees 
      the value of what we are creating here. Alterian is an industry leader 
      with a great vision and we are very excited to become part of their 
      march to change the face of marketing.”
    
    
      Alterian’s integrated marketing services 
      platform has significantly evolved over the past 24 months through a 
      mixture of organic development and acquisition. Having established 
      itself as the database marketing software partner for industry giants 
      such Accenture, Acxiom, Carlson Marketing, Experian, Epsilon, InfoUSA, 
      Merkle, Ogilvy One and Euro RSCG Worldwide, Alterian built a powerful 
      analytically led integrated marketing platform that delivers email, 
      database, and operational marketing and reporting.
    
    
      It is also the only company to be included in Forrester Research’s 
      The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Marketing 
      Platform; Q1 2008, Gartner’s Magic 
      Quadrant for Enterprise Marketing Management, 2Q07 and Jupiter 
      Research’s E-mail Marketing Buyers Guide, 
      2008. Most recently Alterian was included in Forrester Research’s 
      The CRM 2.0 Imperative.
    
    
      “All media are striving to become more 
      personalised in the quest to improve customer experience and 
      announcements made in the past two weeks by Google and MySpace reinforce 
      this. This trend creates more complex content needs based on the 
      individual consumer. As we have seen in other online channels such as 
      email, it becomes critical for the content to become an integral part of 
      the overall customer analytics and execution layer in order to meet 
      these needs,” said Jason McNamara, CMO, 
      Alterian. “Analytics is the new measure of 
      how well marketers understand their customers, but people react to 
      content. And reaction and interaction with content creates new 
      analytics. Unlike offline, these interactions are often inbound and 
      real-time in nature, thus impossible to manage with manual processes. 
      Web 2.0 and social media is consumer generated content that must be 
      optimised in a platform.”
    
    
      “With the acquisition of Mediasurface, we 
      believe Alterian is in the best position to help companies profit from 
      how consumers interact and buy from organisations today. We look forward 
      to working with customers and channel partners from both companies to 
      deliver this exciting new capability,” 
      concluded Eldridge.
    
    
      About Alterian
    
    
      Alterian (LSE:ALN) helps marketers improve results through its 
      enterprise marketing software platform and global partner community of 
      over 70 leading marketing services providers, agencies and systems 
      integrators. By combining database, digital, and operational marketing 
      applications on a shared data infrastructure, the Alterian Marketing 
      Services Platform makes it practical and cost effective for marketers to 
      gain actionable insight and use this to execute an integrated marketing 
      strategy across online and offline channels.
    
    
      With over 70 global partners such as Accenture, Acxiom, Allant Group, 
      Carlson Marketing, Experian, Epsilon, InfoUSA, Merkle, Ogilvy One and 
      Euro RSCG Worldwide, who deliver Alterian software alongside their own 
      value-added services, to market leaders like Princess Cruises, General 
      Motors, Zurich, HSBC, Limited Too, Dell, Amnesty International and 
      Vodafone. For more information about Alterian, our Partner Network or 
      the Alterian Marketing Services Platform please visit, www.alterian.com
    
    
      About Mediasurface
    
    
      Mediasurface is an international provider of web content management 
      solutions allowing businesses to easily manage their internet, intranet 
      and extranet websites. Mediasurface solutions power sophisticated, 
      content-driven websites ranging from Global 1000 companies to thousands 
      of sites for medium and smaller businesses. Familiar, easy-to-use 
      interfaces deliver unrivalled content management and enterprise search 
      capabilities.
    
    
      Morello is an enterprise solution that has changed the face of content 
      management and is used to power sophisticated intranets, extranets, 
      websites and other digital channels for Global 1000 companies.
    
    
      Immediacy is an intuitive website and intranet management solution for 
      the connected enterprise that makes it easy for anyone to create and 
      maintain high quality websites.
    
    
      Pepperio is a one-stop-shop package for SMEs exclusively offered by 
      Mediasurface’s network of accredited Pepperio 
      partners, allowing smaller businesses to easily run professionally 
      designed websites for a low fixed monthly fee.
    
    
      Mediasurface operates through wholly owned subsidiaries and partners 
      across Europe, USA and Asia Pacific. www.mediasurface.com