J.D. Power will buy Orlando-based Korrelate, an online-to-offline data company that nearly went out of business in February. The solution will supplement J.D. Power’s reporting solutions for auto marketers seeking to better understand the car shopper’s path to purchase.
The companies have complementary, largely non-overlapping solutions. Korrelate was founded as Ad Summos four years ago to help publishers link their website visitors to real-world actions such as buying a car. J.D. Power, a business unit of McGraw Hill Financial, provides similar reporting through its Power Information Network but uses traditional methods – primarily car buyer surveys conducted after the transaction (With questions such as, “What ads did you see?”). The addition of Korrelate’s data will let J.D. Power customers better decide effectiveness of automaker, dealer and third-party websites, and media placements.
Deal terms weren’t disclosed.
Korrelate, founded by former management of AOL-owned behavioral ad platform Tacoda, essentially suspended operations in early February, giving its approximately 10 customers a week to remove the company’s pixels from their websites before it stopped supporting them. At the time, CEO Daniel Jaye told AdExchanger he believed the company could find a home for its technology solution – and so it apparently has.
Korrelate’s remaining employees – which LinkedIn pegs at eight – will transition to J.D. Power, while CEO Dan Jaye will depart but continue to advise the company. It has three remaining customers, including AOL.
Korrelate was among the early companies to try building reporting tools that could prove the value of digital behaviors and ad exposures in influencing buying decisions. The fact that it did not become dominant in the online-to-offline tracking space suggests it either moved too early, or perhaps was unable to match the scale and marketing prowess of bigger players like Nielsen and Datalogix who ramped up aggressively in 2013.
