FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I), a leading technology provider, today announces it has acquired Prelytix Inc. for a maximum total consideration of US$20m. The acquisition brings together a market leader in the use of predictive analytics for lead generation and the world’s most powerful database platform kdb+. As a result, FD’s enlarged marketing technology division will now be able to provide its clients with deeper and more meaningful insights into customer intent.
The acquisition of Prelytix forms part of FD’s strategy to penetrate additional vertical sectors, beyond its core in financial markets, using the capabilities of kdb+. The combination of an established innovative business in the marketing technology sector, along with the capabilities of FD’s software will accelerate the route to market for both companies.
Acquisition rationale
Prelytix, is a Massachusetts-based software company, which specialises in providing predictive analytics generated from the billions of data points produced by numerous sources such as real-time advertising data, website traffic and social media. Many of the world’s largest technology companies such as EMC, HP and IBM are current Prelytix customers.
Prelytix has been partnering with the Company’s marketing division, Market Resource Partners, to provide these predictive analytics as part of the Delta Marketing Cloud, the launch of which was announced in January 2015. The acquisition of Prelytix is a logical step and creates one of the first end to end marketing technology firms.
Kevin Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer of FD’s Market Resource Partners, commented: “The use of predictive analytics to identify the best opportunities has the potential to transform sales and marketing strategies. Instead of blanketing their target audience, marketers can optimize their investment by focusing on prospects with the highest propensity to buy. The combination of Prelytixs’ proprietary algorithms to identify these customers, using the power of kdb+ and the Delta platform to sift the vast data sets involved, gives MRP and its customers a powerful lead in the process.”
Mike Kelly and Marc Laplante, co-Founders of Prelytix, commented: “The data we provide results in better intelligence about prospects and higher revenue opportunities for our clients. While Prelytix has achieved rapid growth to date, the size of the data sets we analyse and the complexity of the analytics that has to be performed against it to unlock the full value of the data, has been a limiting factor in our ability to scale our business. As part of FD, with access to the Delta platform, we look forward to being able to focus on increasing our customer base and providing even more sophisticated analytics to help clients maximise their revenue opportunities.”
Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of FD, commented: “Digital marketing is one of a number of vertical markets challenged by rapid growth in data volumes. This acquisition creates a unique end to end technology marketing firm with industry leaders at the helm backed by a software platform and a team of data scientists. This offers the potential to generate significant revenues for the Company. The acquisition of Prelytix follows our £15.3m placing earlier this month to accelerate opportunities in Fast Data and we continue to target additional vertical markets in which we have the capability to disrupt. We look forward to updating the market in due course.”
About First Derivatives
FD is a global technology provider with nearly 20 years of experience of working with some of the world’s largest finance, technology and energy institutions. It holds a 65% stake in Palo Alto-based Kx Systems, developer of the world-leading database technology, kdb+. It employs over 1,200 people worldwide and has operations in London, New York, Stockholm, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dublin and its headquarters in Newry. For further information please visit www.firstderivatives.com.
About MRP
MRP provides marketing technology and services to some of the largest global technology brands, distributors and partners. For over 13 years, clients have relied on MRP to drive pipeline and deliver the insights needed to sell more effectively to their key target markets. MRP combines its unique account-based intelligence platform with proven integrated marketing tactics to generate industry leading ROI and conversion. MRP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the FD Group, PLC (LSE: FDP). For further information please visit www.mrpfd.com.
