Digital marketing firm Impact Radius scooped up ClearSaleing, the attribution component of eBay Enterprise, which was spun off from eBay in November. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Impact Radius CEO Per Pettersen told AdExchanger that he targeted ClearSaleing because “[t]hey have some very innovative technological approaches to cross-device and consumer journey tracking.”
Pettersen noted areas like data visualization and artificial intelligence as important new capabilities for companies that aim to provide full-service digital marketing. Impact Radius will also be taking on ClearSaleing’s 30 or so employees, as Pettersen said his company is “excited about joining forces with the team and the considerable expertise in the area of attribution they bring to the table.”
For any company that houses a suite of products like tag management, mobile analytics and performance marketing, attribution tech is an increasingly essential component. Impact Radius’s media management product did not have algorithmic attribution, which is a crucial aspect of forecasting and media planning.
“We feel these are valuable additions that were filled with the acquisition,” said Pettersen.
Brands increasingly bring ecommerce capabilities in-house, as once cutting-edge technology begins to commoditize. For instance, Toys R Us – which was one of eBay Enterprise’s flagship clients – pulled most of its business in favor of internal solutions in July.
While the trend toward in-house tech and services-laden vendors may have indicated to eBay that it was the right time to shrug off its third-party solutions in favor of its ecommerce market, attribution has quickly become a must-have for any vendors interested in differentiating their offering from what an enterprise brand is capable of.
The sale of ClearSaleing is the latest move from eBay, which since its July split from PayPal has steadily unloaded its tech assets to focus on its core commerce business. A month ago, Zeta Intetractive purchased eBay Enterprise’s CRM division, which came out of the GSI Commerce team eBay bought in 2011.
Earlier in the summer, a small group of private equity firms paid $925 million for the units not acquired by Zeta Interactive, a significant markdown from the $2.4 billion eBay paid for GSI Commerce, which became the heart of eBay Enterprise.
