New York Times to purchase KM software provider
Not content with purchasing software licenses for its own use, the New York Times Co. has entered an agreement to acquire the whole company of Abuzz Technologies. The deal, for an unreported sum, is expected to close by the end of the month. The Abuzz and Beehive brands will continue to be used, and plans are in place to continue Abuzz's enterprise business.
Abuzz, a developer of expertise management software, recently made its Beehive product generally available. Apparently, that focus fits in with the New York Times' "digital expansion" initiative.
The New York Times will use Abuzz' Beehive technology as the community-building engine for the 8 million registered users that regularly visit the company's 50+ online properties, including nytimes.com, boston.com, winetoday.com.
In a broad sense, both companies share a goal of making access to knowledge ubiquitous, said Patty Purcell, VP of strategic marketing and customer operations at Abuzz. While the New York Times's focus has been primarily on personal knowledge or audiences and Abuzz's has been corporate, Purcell said they see these areas coming together.
The advantages to Abuzz seem to be clearly in the space of access to many more resources and affiliation as they will now be part of a 300-person organization. "It will also accelerate our entry into the Internet," said Purcell, addressing one of the three areas where Beehive is applicable (the others being intranets and extranets).
As for the New York Times, they gain better access to their advertisers and can provide a reader to reader connection, according to Purcell.
"The acquisition of Abuzz is a timely and strategic fit as we build our Internet business to scale and is a major building block in our digital future," said Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of Times Company Digital, a New York Times company spun off to consolidate the Company's Internet holdings.
Nisenholtz called Beehive's community-building capabilities "a dream-come-true for our growing audience of like-minded people and for the advertisers who want to reach them," adding that Beehive will provide competitive advantage as the New York Times extends its brand throughout its online properties.
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