Contact: Alan Pelz-Sharpe
The marketing automation industry is upending the Web content management (WCM) space. Our research tells us that pure-play WCM technology is unlikely to continue to grow as a market in any substantial way. We believe that going forward, the technology is likely to be bundled along with marketing automation platforms, rather than sold as stand-alone WCM systems. That prognosis is reflected in the pattern of M&A activity in the two sectors.
The critical fact missed by the WCM market was that the central content repository was not the be-all and end-all that it was claimed to be – certainly not for all organizations. While having marketing collateral in a single ordered, managed system is important, it is only when that content is connected to a chain of events that it results in a transaction of any value.
The last WCM acquisition of note was that of Day Software by Adobe in July 2010 for $243m. In sharp contrast, the marketing automation sector has been a hotbed of M&A and IPO activity. In the first week of June, salesforce.com announced the purchase of marketing automation provider ExactTarget for $2.5bn. A few weeks prior, rival Marketo came public in a well-received IPO and currently garners a market cap of $750m. Subscribers can click here for a full report on the WCM industry and prospects for existing players.
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