Macromedia said Thursday it has
agreed to merge with
e-marketing software giant Andromedia to aid its new e-Business
Infrastructure strategy.
The deal highlighted a busy day for Macromedia (MACR)
at Fall Internet World ’99, where the Net powerhouse also formed an
alliance with USWeb/CKS and unveiled an
e-Business Infrastructure plan, which was endorsed by BroadVision.
Macromedia’s merger with Andromedia closes the industry’s first complete
circle e-marketing solution that combines customization and analysis with
Macromedia’s Web publishing applications.
The deal allows Macromedia to offer its new integrated package for
content creation and management of corporate Internet/intranet and extranet
sites. Businesses will benefit because they will be able to reduce time to
deployment, report customer preferences and predict anticipated buying
trends — all in real-time.
Andromedia’s CEO, Kent Godfrey, plans to join the senior management team at
Macromedia where he will helm the new e-business plan.
“Andromedia and Macromedia’s products already complement one another and
are used jointly by many of our customers,” said Godfrey.
“Businesses are tired of having to knit together a hodgepodge of point
solutions from multiple vendors in order to create the dynamic, interactive and personally relevant Web sites required to market their products effectively in today’s competitive e-commerce environment.”
Macromedia did not rest after the merger. After rolling out its new e-business strategy, it formed a strategic
alliance with professional Net services leader USWeb/CKS (USWB)
to help simplify the management and production of the strategy’s dynamic
content. USWeb/CKS will then benefit by offering the new integrated
solution to its clients.
“By extending its mission to facilitate the effective design and delivery
of content for the Internet, Macromedia’s e-business infrastructure
strategy is addressing the most challenging issues facing our clients
today,” said Robert Shaw, CEO, USWeb/CKS.”
The alliance should result in future pros, where Macromedia and USWeb/CKS
will collaborate on the development of e-business solutions to make dynamic
content management easier and more efficient. Macromedia will offer sales,
marketing and training support to USWeb/CKS.
Macromedia’s wheeling and dealing wasn’t finished as it enlisted the aid of
BroadVision (BFSN). BroadVision agreed to make the BroadVision One-To-One application suite
the first integration platform for Macromedia’s e-business strategy.
This will enable businesses to easily build, deploy and maintain large
scale, content-rich and personalized sites.
“The combination of BroadVision’s e-business applications with Macromedia’s
e-Business Infrastructure represents a major step forward for anyone
involved in the production of advanced Web sites today,” said Rob Burgess,
chairman and CEO of Macromedia, Inc.
