Loyalty marketing developer Netcentives
Inc. Wednesday added to its infrastructure tools by acquiring MaxMiles Inc., a business-to-business
aggregator of information for the travel space.
Financial terms were not disclosed, although Netcentives did say MaxMiles’ headquarters will relocate from Chicago to Netcentives’ San Francisco headquarters.
MaxMiles provides technology for travelers a way to organize their frequent
flyer miles. Customers such as Excite@Home (ATHM), America Online (AOL), Microsoft (MSFT), Sabre (TSG)
and Wal-Mart (WMT) use MaxMiles tools in its travel offerings to customers.
Netcentives (NCNT)
will license MaxMiles technology to portals, e-tailers and other
consumer brands. It will compliment Netcentives’ ClickRewards flagship
service — an incentive-based, purchasing program that offers frequent-flyer
miles and other rewards to online shoppers.
West Shell, chairman and chief executive officer of Netcentives, said the
acquisition adds to the company’s strategy of delivering an infrastructure
for rewards-based Internet promotions and marketing.
“This acquisition is a clear strategic fit for Netcentives,” Shell said.
“MaxMiles provides us with significant personalized aggregation technologies
that will be immediately available to our customers: major portals,
financial institutions and leading e-tailers. Today, MaxMiles is used to
track rewards, but tomorrow, this technology could be the basis for enabling
consumers to aggregate and view all kinds of personal account information.”