Web directory LookSmart has hired the three founders of Web analytics firm Primary Knowledge and licensed the company's technology platform. The directory expects the moves to improve its tracking, reporting and optimization capabilities.
Financial terms of the acquisition of Primary Knowledge's technology were not disclosed.
LookSmart said it hired Peter Adams, Primary Knowledge's former CEO, as its chief technology officer. It also named David Sabel vice president of product development and Matt Grosso vice president of technology.
The Web directory said it would integrate Primary Knowledge's technology into its commercial search listing operations and offer improved tracking, capture and utilization of online marketing data.
“Commercial search is the new frontier of interactive marketing,” Adams said. He noted he hopes to help LookSmart improve the relevancy of its listing products and to improve results for its customers.
Primary Knowledge closed in June, two years after it was founded. The company positioned itself as an outsourced provider of Internet-based business intelligence and warehoused and mined data from log files, registration and transaction databases, ad servers and outbound and inbound e-mail servers. Customers of Primary Knowledge included the White House, IBM, Dow Chemical and Johnson & Johnson.
