Online customer data provider Acxiom announced yesterday that it is acquiring LiveRamp, another data platform that matches offline data to online customer profiles. The deal is said to be worth $310 million.
With the combination of two, very large data repositories of customer buying behavior, you can expect to see some very targeted advertising coming your way. The deal allows Acxiom to add even more metrics to its customer profiles, which it can sell to advertisers looking to target specific segments. While online customer data remains limited, tying it together to their offline activities creates a very powerful data profile of a single person, and their buying habits.
“This is a win for the entire marketing industry,” said Acxiom CEO Scott Howe. “This deal brings together the world’s leading marketing data company with the emerging leader in data onboarding to create the industry’s most comprehensive network of connections. Together, we will accelerate our vision of a connected ecosystem that delivers true one-to-one marketing at scale. The combination should help virtually everyone in the industry achieve better connections, better insights and better results.”
LiveRamp partners with several big marketing platforms, and it says it will continue to keep those customers, as well as expand internationally, with Acxiom’s backing.
In a blog post about the announcement, LiveRamp CEO Auren Hoffman said:
LiveRamp will benefit from Acxiom’s vast resources, which will help us achieve higher match rates, faster turnaround times, and the ability to rapidly introduce data onboarding to thousands of Acxiom customers.
The deal is expected to close some time in the middle of summer.
