Keynote Acquires GómezPro Business Unit From Watchfire
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 crčme de la crčme 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:
• WebExcellence Scorecards (previously Watchfire GómezPro Scorecard) — A Web-based subscription service that ranks financial services firms against their peers for Web site excellence. This service also provides industry best practices and emerging standards research.
• WebExcellence Analysis Service — This custom consultative service builds on the Scorecard to provide deeper competitive analysis, site analysis and best practices. Services include: Competitive Analysis, Site Analysis, Task Analysis and Wireframe Analysis.
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq "KEYN") is the worldwide leader in services that improve online business performance and communications technologies. Keynote helps approximately 2,300 corporate customers and 13,000 individual subscribers become "the best of the best" online. The business premise supporting Keynote`s mission is: "Online businesses can`t manage what they don`t measure." As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with unbiased benchmarking data, competitive analysis and operational metrics from the customer perspective. This data measures service levels and customer experience of Web sites, broadband services and mobile communications.
Known as The Internet Performance Authority®, Keynote manages a market-leading infrastructure of 1,600+ measurement computers and mobile devices in over 114 locations and 66+ metropolitan areas worldwide that assess service levels and a panel of over 160,000 consumers who participate in interactive Web site tests that assess user experience. These online user experience tests capture customer attitude and behavior to answer the critical "why" behind the "what." Keynote`s geographically distributed measurement services, on-site monitoring appliances and competitive intelligence studies ensure that its customers outpace their competitors in online service levels and overall user experience.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are not purely historical regarding the Company or management`s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations and strategies for the future. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from the Company`s current expectations.
Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, Keynote`s expected benefits of the acquisition and future prospects. It is important to note that actual outcomes and Keynote`s actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks and uncertainties such as Keynote`s ability to successfully retain customers of the acquired business and its ability to market and sell its current services to new or existing customers, Keynote`s ability to operate acquired business, managing geographically-dispersed operations and manage related costs successfully, Keynote`s ability to retain key employees, unforeseen expenses, integration of the acquired business or technologies. Readers should also refer to the risks outlined in Keynote`s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2004, and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and any current reports on Form 8-K filed during the fiscal year.
All forward-looking statements and reasons why results might differ included in this release are made as of the date of this press release, based on information available to Keynote as of the date of this press release, and Keynote assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement or reasons why results might differ.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Watchfire is a trademark or registered trademark of Watchfire Corporation. Gňmez is a registered trademark of Gňmez Inc., used under license. All other products, company names, and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. © 2005 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Media/Investor Relations Contact:
Dan Berkowitz Keynote
(650) 403-3305
dberkowitz@keynote.com
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