• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 2, 2006

The fast-changing Web analytics market witnessed further consolidation this week, as WebSideStory announced the acquisition of the privately held Visual Sciences, LLC for $57.3 million in cash and stock.

Visual Sciences--which concentrates on streaming data analysis and visualization software--will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of WebSideStory, Inc. Co-founders Jim MacIntyre and David Scherer will serve as CEO and CTO of the business unit, respectively. "This transaction expands our addressable market by an estimated $1 billion and creates significant cross-sell opportunities within our over 1,100 enterprise customers," Jeff Lunsford, WebSideStory chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Last November, Google shocked the industry when it began offering free analytics services through Urchin, a company the search giant acquired in late March of 2005. The tool, "Google Analytics," can be used to track all online marketing efforts--including paid and organic search, display ads, and print ads with URLs. What's more, the product can track campaigns run on Google's paid search competitors, including Yahoo and the upcoming MSN adCenter.

This past summer, online research and auditing company I/PRO Corporation purchased Datanautics, also known as "Accrue," a once high-flying Web analytics player. The Accrue platform--used by clients such as Citicorp, A.G. Edwards, T-Systems, and Macy's--relies on packet-sniffing technology.

In late 2004, DoubleClick exited the analytics business, shedding SiteAdvance, and instead partnering with Omniture's SiteCatalyst; also last year, Digital River--which manages e-commerce operations for other companies--purchased analytics company Fireclick for $7.5 million.

WebSideStory, on Wednesday, also reported fourth-quarter revenue of $11.7 million, 79 percent over the $6.5 million generated in the fourth quarter of 2004.