Marchex has acquired Sonar Technologies for $14 million. Both the companies are into analytics, but of different broad ranges. Marchex is a Seattle-based call and conversation analytics company, while Sonar Technologies is a text messaging and sales engagement analytics technology company. For the deal, the complete $14 million will be paid through different channels. Marchex will pay $12.5 million in cash and stock, along with $1.5 million in additional stock, subject to the post-acquisition performance target.
Currently, Sonar has about 10 employees, who will be joining Marchex under the new deal. Sonar provides an enterprise-level messaging platform for the business to improve its revenue by developing its consumer experience and engagement. The company helps marketers to reach customers with personalized and timely marketing campaigns via text. The company currently considers text messaging to be one of the most unexplored marketing channels that are used by the end-users. The company currently processes millions of messages for leading organizations in real estate, consumer lending, travel, automation, and various other industries. Sonar will be working with Marchex to improve the conversion rate through messaging-based data analytics, while Marchex will further look to expand its footprint in the consumer experience and engagement.
Russell Horowitz, Marchex Executive Chairman, said in a statement that more and more companies will now be moving toward increasing their output by applying different conversational analytics and solutions to text and messaging. The acquisition will add new capabilities and an innovative team that will enable the businesses from the multiple verticals to employ robust test and messaging solutions for revenue growth. The combination of both the technology will enable Marchex to be one of the first companies to offer deep consumer insights.
Marchex reported $24.8 million in revenue in the third quarter, which is an increase from $20 million a year earlier, with a quarterly loss of $1.2 million. The combined businesses will be offering a unified view of the customer across voice and text communication channels. This will enable actionable insights and solutions to allow businesses to increase sales and improve consumer engagement.
