Keynote to Acquire Vividence

Web monitoring and management services provider Keynote Systems on Friday announced its intent to acquire Web-based customer research firm Vividence for $20 million in cash, and another $6 million possible over the next year based on performance targets.

Keynote has already done two acquisitions in the customer experience management (CEM) space when it acquired Enviz in October 2002 and NetRaker in 2004. With the addition of Vividence, the company expects to own 80 percent of the CEM market.

“With the acquisition of Vividence we are expanding our claim to be the JD Power of the Internet, with the clear mission and means to improve the performance of e-business worldwide,” said company spokesman Dan Berkowitz. “The acquisition underscores our commitment to improve e-business performance from both an operational and business perspective. We are moving aggressively to offer a powerful range of CEM services to business and marketing executives.”

As result of the acquisition, Keynote is acquiring more than 130 active customers for customer experience management services and access to over 250 companies that have ever purchased services from Vividence.

Vividence’s solutions will be integrated with Keynote’s existing WebEffective Intelligence Platform (WIP), which delivers online market research, usability and Web analytics in an integrated service. The Vividence offerings will expand the functionality and range of Keynote’s CEM portfolio to include syndicated research and benchmarking capabilities for marketing executives.

Keynote’s CEM services include customer experience benchmarking and exploratory customer experience research; site redesign needs assessment, recommendations and testing; conversion/attrition data; and competitive comparison.