There is news that EMC has a new partnership with FatWire Software for WCM. There are a few components to this deal, as we understand it:
- EMC will resell FatWire Content Server in a new package called EMC Web Experience Management by FatWire.
- EMC will have rights to resell the whole FatWire portfolio.
- EMC has made an undisclosed equity investment in FatWire.
- FatWire will resell the EMC DAM product.
- FatWire will develop apps on Documentum xCP.
It’s a substantial partnership and an admission that EMC’s own efforts in WCM weren’t cutting it with customers. Still, it falls short of the rumored acquisition. Why? The two vendors claim a partnership gives EMC access to high-end WCM technology while letting FatWire remain nimble enough to develop products quickly and be more responsive to market needs — the equity investment is meant to help FatWire along these lines. This makes some sense as acquired WCM often gets lost in a larger ECM vendor. But with the market consolidation that has already occurred in this sector, EMC is taking on some risk relying on a third-party for its WCM rather than owning it outright.
Apparently it’s a risk EMC is willing to take, which we take to mean that WCM isn’t seen as strategic enough to EMC to do the acquisition. That’s not all that surprising really. WCM is as much (if not more) a part of marketing automation these days as it is part of the sorts of ECM apps EMC is invested in. Buying WCM at this point would mean making some commitment to continued innovation in areas of online marketing (e.g., multivariate testing, web analytics etc.) that don’t relate much to other areas of EMC’s business. EMC is focusing on its core transactional document management apps and information governance opportunities that tie records management to archiving and e-discovery. WCM doesn’t really have much to do with any of that.
FatWire’s products will essentially replace EMC’s WCM assets (though EMC hasn’t yet announced specific products or timelines for end-of-life, but that will come) and so this is potentially a boon to FatWire’s sales, insomuch as EMC can sell FatWire’s software. If this partnership does have a material impact on FatWire’s sales, it could impact its ability to be acquired by another vendor, at least at a valuation it might want. So this could be a big deal for FatWire, one way or another.
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