Inktomi Corp. is teaming up with Watchfire, a Canadian provider of automated
Web site management software, to offer what it calls “a higher quality search
experience across corporate intranets, extranets and Web sites.”
Foster City, Calif.-based Inktomi said the deal will
leverage its search technology and Watchfire’s metadata management software
to provide clients with a solution for developing easy-to-find enterprise
content. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Clearly Inktomi needs more deals like this, especially ones that are revenue
enhancers; the company, which has never made any money since its 1998 IPO,
posted a third fiscal quarter pro forma net loss of 17 cents a share last
month on revenue of $39.6 million. For the year earlier period, the company
recorded a pro forma profit of $4.1 million, or 3 cents a share, on revenue
of $57.5 million.
At one time Inktomi’s stock traded at $232 a share; today it was up 7 cents
to $5.98 in mid-morning trading. Its 54-week low is $2.40.
Watchfire’s technology can automate the time-consuming practice of preparing
content for search engine indexing. The companies said the alliance will
allow customers using Inktomi Enterprise Software to incorporate Watchfire
Enterprise Solution to improve their content and help to ensure the
information in their networks is best represented to the search engine,
Watchfire’s automated solution inserts meaningful keyword metadata (such as
page titles, alt tags, author tags and description tags) that enables
organizations to incorporate their own business specific keyword metadata.
Founded in 1996, Watchfire customers include Compaq
Computer, Lockheed Martin, Motorola and AT&T. The company maintains dual
North American headquarters in Kanata, Ontario, Canada and Lexington, Mass.
The company also makes analysis and reporting software to help detect and
manage Web site errors like slow transactions, broken links, poor
searchability, accessibility problems, and privacy compliance problems.
