Yahoo! Announces Agreement to Acquire IndexTools' Analytics Business
Acquisition intended to enhance platform for comprehensive Web — analytics and extend offerings for on-line marketers — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced that it has entered …
Context & Ripple Effects
Yahoo has been building advertising and media capabilities through acquisitions, including its 2007 purchase of the Right Media advertising exchange and the February 2008 acquisition of Maven Networks. Adding IndexTools extends that acquisition-led buildout into measurement for online marketers.
The deal matters because analytics can connect campaign activity to marketer reporting, making Yahoo’s advertising offerings more comprehensive rather than limited to distribution or inventory.
First-order effects
- Yahoo gains IndexTools’ analytics business to expand its web-measurement offering for online marketers.
- IndexTools customers and staff become part of Yahoo’s marketer-services portfolio under the announced agreement.
Second-order effects
- Yahoo can position analytics alongside its advertising products, raising the value of an integrated offering for marketers that want both campaign access and measurement.
- Independent analytics vendors face a larger platform owner that can bundle measurement with Yahoo’s existing advertising relationships and services.
Third-order effects
- If major web platforms continue acquiring specialist tools, online marketing services will consolidate around stacks that combine advertising access, content capabilities and performance measurement.
The trend: Yahoo’s IndexTools agreement is one data point in the acquisition-led construction of end-to-end online marketing platforms.