Sometimes Mergers can come out of the blue - this one is - but I don’t know enough about the merger to say it’s good or bad.  ClickTracks is merging with the EMarketing Firm J.L. Halsey. 

J.L.Halsey is a firm I am unfamiliar with, but it’s subsidiaries are fairly well known (Hot Banana is more a niche product from what little I know about it, EmailLabs and Lyris I am more aware of - but don’t deal with either in any direct way)  - not a well known brand name in Web Analytics, at least, not to me.   However, ClickTracks has decided to merge with J.L. Halsey, so here’s the Press Release I received this morning from Maven Communications. 

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ClickTracks to Merge with eMarketing Firm J.L. Halsey

Merger will accelerate product development

Santa Cruz, California – August 21, 2006 – Web Analytics Leader ClickTracks Analytics Inc. (http://www.clicktracks.com/), announced plans to join Lyris Technologies, EmailLabs and Hot Banana as subsidiaries of marketing technology provider J.L. Halsey (OTCBB:JLHY).

Market and Product Acceleration Planned

Halsey will contribute to the acceleration of ClickTracks product development, marketing, sales and support capabilities. “ClickTracks is one of the fastest growing web analytics companies serving the SMB market.” said David Burt, CEO of J.L. Halsey. “We look forward to seeing additional innovative ClickTracks products on the market – more quickly and well integrated with other vital online marketing tools.”

“ClickTracks growth has been entirely organic for the past four years,” ClickTracks CEO John Marshall pointed out. “Being a part of J.L. Halsey now opens up a significant opportunity for ClickTracks to serve a larger customer base with expanded support, new integrations and quicker time to market with our upcoming features and products.”

Integration Plans

ClickTracks web analytics is a key part of a set of integrated products that include email marketing and web content management for small and mid-sized businesses. While maintaining current integrations, ClickTracks has mapped out seamless integrations for analysis of email campaign results, AB split testing, and web site changes throughout the new family of products over the next 12 to 18 months.

Structure

ClickTracks will operate as an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of J.L. Halsey and will continue to invest in R&D, sales and marketing and enhance their award-winning technologies. John Marshall will continue as ClickTracks CEO and no restructuring actions are planned for the company.

Viant Group, a San Francisco-based boutique investment bank, advised ClickTracks in the transaction.

About ClickTracks
Based in Santa Cruz, California, ClickTracks is the maker of award-winning web analytics software. ClickTracks products allow marketers to track the response to marketing campaigns and understand where visitors come from, as well as how they interact with a web site.

ClickTracks was voted ‘Best Web Site Analysis Tool’ in ClickZ’s 2003, 2004 and 2005 Marketing Excellence Awards and was rated "Positive" in Gartner’s 2006 MarketScope for Web Analytics. The company received a "Very Good" top rating from the InfoWorld Test Center for its 6.1 product suite, and a Computerworld Innovative Technology award in the web site management category. ClickTracks’ software has been reviewed and featured on CNET, ZDNet, Builder.com, TechRepublic, Internet.com, CRM Magazine, Media Magazine, MarketingSherpa and About.com.

ClickTracks is indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY). For more information, please visit www.clicktracks.com or send e-mail to info@clicktracks.com.

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OK, I know the subsidiaries of J.L. Halsey better than I know the holding company itself and they are fairly well known - Lyris Technologies, EmailLabs and Hot Banana. 

There’s a lot in this Press Release - some of the good - better metrics on email campaigns AB split testing, and web site changes throughout the new family of products over the next 12 to 18 months.   On the other hand, the merger highlights, to me,  ClickTracks did not have the money or resources to do this development on their own - otherwise, why would they merge?  I know mergers are not always about money - they can also be about synergies between multiple products that together, become more than what they were individually.   Sounds like synergy could be the main reason, along with the money, for the merger. 

Overall, this sounds like a decent merger to get more money for development of the product and John Marshall and ClickTracks will remain the same (for now).  What I’m somewhat uncomfortable with, and this is just me, is what ClickTracks may lose in this merger (not what it’s gaining).   There’s always a danger that the brand, ClickTracks, will become more diluted as it starts falling into a holding company pattern.

I have been recommending ClickTracks to my newer clients - I will continue to do that and I hope the merger will provide everything John Marshall wants for it without in any way diluting what attracted many to the software in the first place - it’s approachability.

However, John Marshall also sent out an email about the merger - here’s that email with portions highlighted that I find relevent.

 Marshall, [don't think he's writing this to me, sounds like it though...nice try]

I have some exciting news about our plans here at ClickTracks. As of today, ClickTracks has signed a merger agreement to join a family of other online marketing companies that are subsidiaries of J.L Halsey. Other companies in the family include Lyris, EmailLabs, and most recently, Hot Banana - a Web content management company.

The arrangement provides investments and increased resources for acceleration of ClickTracks’ product development, marketing, sales and support capabilities, and it gives us a much larger addressable market for ClickTracks products. This is particularly exciting because integration with these products fits in perfectly with our product roadmap. Here are some of first of several synergy points that I am very excited about:  [OK For John, it's about Synergy - just as I suspected - but I'm sure there's a money aspect here as well]

Combined user base: Combine the user base of ClickTracks, Lyris, Hot Banana  and EmailLabs, and you have over 13,000 savvy marketers. With all that  know-how in one family, we are planning to create a network of online marketing expertise and a framework through which we can accelerate our mission of teaching.

Online and offline marketing suite through integration: Fully integrated products help prevent silos of data within the marketing department. A
perfect example of this is integration with both email marketing and content management. I’ve always believed that integration is vital, but too tedious (yes, even in our implementations). Our plan is to create a unified view of customer behavior that spans customer acquisition (often through search marketing) to customer retention (often through email marketing) through to offline interactions. [but I suspect you'll have to use Email Labs if you want that intergration to work well]

Association of events with web metrics: Changes in content of a web site often correlate to changes in visitor behavior. We are planning to capture online marketing and web change events from Hot Banana (and in the future, other content management systems) and correlate these with changes in visitor behavior as revealed by ClickTracks.

Two other surprises that I just can’t tell you about yet: As usual, you’ll be among the first to know when we can leak more of our plans. Suffice it to say, the ClickTracks products will be enhanced with new features even more rapidly as a result of the investments from J.L. Halsey. [Money]

As part of this agreement, ClickTracks remains a corporation, and becomes
an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of J.L. Halsey [that's the part I don't like - I guess you have to give to get]. So we get the best of  all worlds –independence and the resources to better serve our current and upcoming customers. Everyone at ClickTracks remains part of the team, and we’re very excited by the opportunity (Yes, really everyone. John, Stephen, Sylvie and Michael have been actively involved in working with Lyris and EmailLabs over the past few months, and will continue to direct and manage ClickTracks). Lyris, Hot Banana and EmailLabs are world class companies with top tier products and a passion for excellence. We are proud to become part of this family.

Please give me a call if you have any questions about our plans and upcoming growth.

-John Marshall
CEO, ClickTracks Analytics
(831) 621 6381
jmarshall@clicktracks.com
http://www.clicktracks.com

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Ok, so that’s what John Marshall has to say.  All said and done, the merger will accomplish the short term goals of what both companies want in the next 18 months which is a better analytics package with greater market share.  As far as the rest, we’ll have to wait and see.