Acquisition Strengthens Keynote`s Footprint in Customer Experience Management; GómezPro`s Well Known and Respected Financial Services Analysts Join Keynote
GómezPro`s Heuristics Analysis an Ideal Complement to Keynote`s Research-Panel Approach to Benchmarking Online Customer Experience and Web Site Effectiveness
Acquisition is Keynote`s 13th; Terms Not Disclosed
SAN MATEO, California - December 6, 2005 - Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), the worldwide leader in services that improve online business performance and communications technologies, today announced the acquisition of the GómezPro business unit of Watchfire. The acquisition underscores Keynote`s commitment to provide its customers with the leading customer experience management (CEM) technologies and services available on the market today. With this acquisition Keynote will strengthen its CEM business, while at the same time increase its consultative resources. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition is Keynote`s thirteenth acquisition in a little over five years, and is the company`s fourth in the customer experience management space, having already acquired Enviz in October 2002, NetRaker in April 2004 and Vividence in September 2004. Five consultants will join Keynote from Watchfire, including Christopher Musto, vice president of research and the person responsible for managing the analyst team since 1999.
As a result of the acquisition, Keynote has access to 50+ customers for customer experience management services. These customers represent an impressive range of leading companies in the financial services, telecommunications and technology industries.
Watchfire GómezPro`s highly respected heuristics-based approach to benchmarking Web site effectiveness is an ideal complement to Keynote`s existing research panel approach in which consumers participate in interactive Web site tests that capture customer attitude and behavior to answer the critical "why" behind the "what." Together, online businesses now have access to a comprehensive set of solutions for assessing, benchmarking and improving the online customer experience against internal metrics for success, and against leading competitors.
"We are very pleased with this acquisition because of what it means for our customers," said Umang Gupta, chairman and CEO of Keynote. "Adding a heuristics approach to optimizing Web site effectiveness is a very useful complement to our existing quantitative-based CEM offerings. The team of consultants joining Keynote from Watchfire GómezPro is truly the crème de la crème in the financial services sector and our customers will be the beneficiaries of their great expertise and insight. I warmly welcome each one of them to the Keynote family."
"Watchfire`s decision to transition the GómezPro business unit enables us to sharpen our focus and direct all investment to support the demand for our core business--software to manage enterprise online risk and Web application security testing," said Peter McKay, president and CEO, Watchfire. "We are pleased that such an experienced partner will help ensure continued leadership and support for the GómezPro competitive analysis and research services and we are happy to have reached an agreement that we expect will benefit both GómezPro and Keynote customers going forward."
To ensure a smooth transition Watchfire and Keynote are working closely together to address the specific migration requirements of current customers. Current customer logins, subscription services and passwords to the GómezPro portal are expected to remain unchanged. With this acquisition, select Watchfire GómezPro research analysts have joined Keynote and the company has acquired certain of the unit`s intellectual property. The division will be renamed the Keynote WebExcellence business unit and will be responsible for the following offerings:
Comments
Sign In to Make a Comment
Comments are moderated by Internet Retailer and can be removed.