W2O Group Acquires Big Data Firm to Enhance Analytics and Insights Offering
April 19 2012 - 10:23AM
Marketwired
W2O Group, an independent network of complementary marketing,
communications, research and development firms, today announced the
acquisition of Ravel, an Austin-based company with numerous
software assets and a strong track record of solving difficult big
data problems for multiple Fortune 500 companies. W2O is absorbing
Ravel's big data technology and pending patents, as well as its
team of technologists and consultants who build and service the
underlying infrastructure.
IDC (International Data Corporation) has predicted that total
data will grow by 50 times by 2020 and unstructured data (video,
email, files) will account for 90 percent of this data stream. As a
result, current analytics platforms will decrease in efficiency and
new data science approaches will be required to efficiently turn
data into insights that drive social commerce and shape behavior
online.
"Ravel will enhance our team's ability to predict trends based
on a combination of historical information and real-time insights
so that our clients achieve advantages in the marketplace," said
Bob Pearson, President, W2O Group. "The future of PreCommerce and
the emerging discipline of Social Commerce will be largely shaped
by an organization's ability to see the playing field with more
clarity than its peers. We're building that line of sight for our
clients and doing it in a manner that creates 'data agility.' We
are driven by innovation and reinvention so we can continually
offer 'next practices' to our clients that help them stay relevant
and relatable to their constituencies to drive measurable business
and organizational results."
Ravel is another in a series of Austin Technology Incubator
(ATI) portfolio companies, such as Lombardi Software (NYSE: IBM)
and Phurnace (NYSE: BMC), which have been acquired recently.
Effective immediately, Steve Blackmon, Ravel's Cofounder and VP,
Engineering, and its development team, will join W2O Group as
full-time employees where they will consult with W2O clients on
original projects and enhance and create proprietary tools and
technology for W2O companies.
"This acquisition validates our unique approach to data
challenges, the quality of the talent Ravel attracted and the
technology we built," said Blackmon, who will serve as Director of
Data Sciences at W2O. "We are proud and excited to join W2O -- one
of the best consultancies of its kind in the world integrating
analytics and insights with social and digital media -- because it
gives our team the perfect opportunity to apply our technology and
expertise to solve some of the most challenging big data problems
faced by W2O's impressive portfolio of health, technology, consumer
and corporate clients."
About Ravel and ATI Founded in 2010 in
Austin, Ravel makes enterprise-grade analytics solutions for
discovering insights from big data. Focused on driving innovation
in deep analytics, Ravel is committed to developing products that
allow enterprise companies to analyze massive datasets with
commodity hardware and open source software. ATI is a
not-for-profit unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas
at Austin that harnesses business, government and academic
resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and
infrastructure support to its member companies to help them
transition from early-stage ventures to successful technology
businesses. Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with
hundreds of companies, helping raise close to $1 billion in
investor capital. For more information, visit
www.ati.utexas.edu.
About W2O Group Founded and led by
chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, W2O Group is an independent network of
complementary marketing, communications, research and development
firms focused on integrated business solutions to drive change and
growth through "pragmatic disruption" for the world's leading
brands and organizations. W2O Group serves clients through a
network of firms -- WCG, Twist and W2O Ventures -- through offices
in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, Los
Angeles and London. For more information on W2O, please visit
http://w2ogroup.com.
Follow us on Twitter: @W2OGroup Find us on Facebook Read our
CommonSense Blog Read our Pre-Commerce Blog
MEDIA CONTACTS: Christine Selby Regan W2O Group Email
Contact
BMC (NYSE:BMC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Nov 2024 to Dec 2024
BMC (NYSE:BMC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Dec 2023 to Dec 2024