• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 15, 2010

IBM's move Tuesday to acquire Coremetrics, a privately held analytics firm in San Mateo, Calif., clearly signals Big Blue's intent to support companies through social media marketing, advertising and cloud-based services. The real-time insights from raw and processed analytics and data will give brands a closer look at how consumers consume media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Along with the technology, IBM acquires several of Coremetrics' patents -- although Joe Davis, Coremetrics chief executive officer and founder, told MediaPost that IBM's interest in and plans for them are not clear. IBM -- a company known for developing research and development of sophisticated technologies -- not only supports thousands of patents internally, but has been buying up analytics firms that support marketing and advertising firms for the past several months collecting more. In May, IBM announced it would buy Sterling Commerce from AT&T.

Davis says IBM sees an opportunity to expand into marketing departments. The company has done a good job selling into other parts of businesses, but "views marketing as the last untapped green field in the enterprise."

Within the next five years, 88% of chief executive officers will focus on getting closer to customers, 82% want to better understand customer needs, and 85% require more visibility into their businesses, according to IBM's 2010 CEO Study.

IBM will turn Coremetrics into a division to support these chief executive officers. Davis takes the role of general manager. The deal should close in the third quarter. Davis says Coremetrics doesn't work with a lot of agencies, but that could change with the deep-pocket support the new division will get.

The deal gives Coremetrics sales support to grow the company worldwide and into more market segments in addition to banking, retail and travel, Davis says.

The acquisition tells companies that marketing should have a seat at the table of any enterprise strategy, according to Forrester Research Senior Analyst Joe Stanhope. He says although the deal isn't large enough to move the needle, it implies that IBM has begun to think about marketing as an overall business strategy. The message points to social networks and data intelligence that should underscore a core piece of any marketing and advertising budget. "IBM already associates the acquisition with the integrations of WebSphere software products," he says.

IBM has a stable of customers. It's not likely the company will pick up many new ones, other than agencies, from the deal, but Bank of America, Holiday Inn, PETCO, 1-800 Flowers, Office Depot, Victoria's Secret, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Seton Hall University are among the 2,100 global brands that Coremetrics supports.

The IBM Software Group has acquired more than 55 companies since 2003. Davis founded Coremetrics in 1999. Through the years, Accel Partners, FTV Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and W Capital Partners financially backed the company.