IBM has announced the closing of its acquisition of web analytics firm Coremetrics, based in San Mateo, CA. The acquisition will boost IBM’s business analytics offerings through cloud services.

"With this acquisition, IBM will give clients greater insight about customer behavior and sentiment about products and services, and give true foresight into their future buying patterns," says Craig Hayman, general manager, Industry Solutions for IBM Software Group. "The combination of IBM and Coremetrics will enable our clients to maximize marketing expenditures while also making the browsing, buying, banking or customer service experience more convenient, personal and interactive for their consumers."

"IBM and Coremetrics can help businesses rapidly gain intelligence into social networks and online media sources through a software as a service (SaaS) delivery model and incorporate this insight into their business processes to create smarter, more effective marketing campaigns," says Coremetrics CEO Joe Davis. "Together, we can develop powerful new business analytics solutions, delivering a single source of information about every aspect of your online business — every customer, transaction, product, channel and supplier — to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and drive measurable business results. Further, we deliver on-the-go access to real-time analytics and performance data on all major smart mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android."

IBM’s own Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization consists of 5,000 consultants and a network of analytics solution centers. The company has spent over $11 billion in acquisitions in this area in the last five years.

IBM will continue to support and enhance Coremetrics’ technologies and clients while allowing them to take advantage of the broader IBM portfolio. Coremetrics’ current employees (about 230 of them) will join the IBM Software Group.