(Photo: Kansir/Flickr/CC-BY)

In an effort to help the technology giant provide customers effective tools to create more focused marketing campaigns, International Business Machines Corp. has announced it will buy marketing software maker Unica Corp. for $480 million. IBM, which recently purchased Web analytics vendor Coremetrics, is offering Unica holders $21 a share. According to the Wall Street Journal, that’s more than double Thursday’s closing value and the highest level the stock has ever seen.

IBM and Unica join forces

IBM’s goal is to help customers generate a “consistent and relevant cross-channel brand experience to promote customer loyalty and satisfaction,” as outlined in a statement, says PC World. And shifting to higher-margin software business to maintain profit growth appears to be the company’s main strategic focus. Currently there are about 500 Unica employees, all of whom will be incorporated into IBM’s software division, where IBM believes Unica’s software for marketing organizations will offer an exceptional advantage to its business-analytics and consulting unit.

About Unica Corporation

A recognized leader in marketing software solutions, Unica Corporation has been around for almost two decades. Founded in 1992, the company is based in Waltham, Mass., with additional offices located in other parts of the nation and worldwide. It is one of England’s fastest growing technology companies. The company reported total revenue of $30.7 million for the third quarter fiscal 2010, which ended June 30, 2010. That shows a 14 percent increase compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2009.

New movement appears promising

Unica has about 1,500 customers, which includes major retailers like BestBuy, eBay and ING. All its customers will soon become IBM customers once the acquisition is finalized. Unica CEO Yuchun Lee said he believes the new movement will help IBM improve all types of businesses, big and small. IBM officials are planning to discuss the Unica acquisition in further detail during a conference call Friday. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

A former IBM executive was one of Danielle Chiesi's targets. Image from Flickr.

In the high-power, high-risk game of information trading, Danielle Chiesi has become  “a confirmation of all (people have) suspected is wrong with Wall Street and the hedge fund industry,” according to Fortune. Former IBM executive Bob Moffat and Danielle Chiesi have both been arrested and charged with securities fraud and conspiracy.

The story of Danielle Chiesi

Danielle Chiesi was an employee of the Galleon hedge fund, employed directly by Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the fund. Danielle Chiesi traded mostly and primarily in information. As an information gatherer for Galleon, Danielle Chiesi maintained a “stable” of sources at companies that she was targeting for inside information. By targeting older men, wearing short skirts and low-cut shirts, and telling them all that “I love the three S’s, sex, stocks and sports” she was able to get inside stock information for her employer, says Fortune. A former beauty queen and sorority girl, Chiesi was well-known as a powerful seductress.

The crimes of Danielle Chiesi

While targeting and sleeping with lots of high-profile executives is not technically illegal, what she did with some of the information was. By gathering and passing on inside information about tech stocks, Chiesi was allegedly participating in insider trading. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of insider trading, and the trial is currently under way.

The effects of insider trading

Insider trading can be a very difficult crime to both prove and understand. The idea of the stock market and stock trading is that everyone is “betting” on stocks with the same information. When people get inside information from people who work at the company, they are able to buy or sell stocks before the information is public knowledge. In other words, people like Danielle Chiesi cheat the system. This is the same crime that Martha Stewart was convicted of. The story of Danielle Chiesi is most compelling because it proves that even the most quiet of tech execs can, under the right circumstances, give up information they know they are not supposed to. Is a financial system that can be gamed this easily one that we should be putting our money into?

Image from Wikimedia.

When’s the last time someone checked up on the soda wars? Maybe people finally gave up and decided that Pepsi would never be able to beat Coke as the world’s favorite soda.

Pepsi is in good company when it comes to not being able to beat Coke. In fact, as brand names go, no one can beat Coke. Triangle Business Journal reports that Coke remains the most valuable brand in the world. Maybe you should check with them if you need short term loans.

Business time

The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest bottler in the world. Also, it’s possible that Coca-Cola has been the most valuable brand in the world for as long as it has been around, but we’ll never know. BusinessWeek and Interbrand began studying and compiling a list of the world’s top 100 brands in 2001, and Coke has held the No. 1 spot every year.

Yes, Coke is sitting pretty as collectively the value of the top 100 most valuable companies in the world dropped 4 percent, but its individual value went up 3 percent in the past year. Yes, even during a recession. The Coca-Cola Company is 123 years old, and it’s based in Atlanta. Its brand value is listed at $68.7 billion.

Big Blue in second place

IBM, worth $60.2 billion, is the second most valuable brand in the world, just edging out Microsoft. IBM headquarters is in Armonk, New York. The Tabulating Machine Company, which ended up becoming IBM, was founded in 1896.
Third place Microsoft is worth $56.6 billion. Compared to two companies that beat it out for most valuable brand, Microsoft is just a baby. Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates. The company grew quickly, opening its first international office in Japan in 1978. Microsoft started off in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but now its headquarters are in Redmond, Washington.

General Electric holds its ground

The top five most valuable brands in the world have not changed their rank since last year. Just as in 2008, GE is the fourth most valuable brand in the world. So far, we’re four for four on U.S. companies being the most valuable in the world. GE, at some point, probably beat out Coke as the most valuable brand, but I guess we’ll never know.

GE is just a few years younger than Coca-Cola Company. It was founded in 1892 when Edison General Electric (yes, that Edison) and Thomson-Houston Company merged. This year, Forbes reported that GE is the largest company in the world.

Going abroad

Rounding out the top five is Finnish company Nokia. Though in the United States this company is best known for making cell phones, Nokia has been around a whole lot longer than cell phones have. The company was founded in 1871, making it even older than the Coca-Cola Company, and it was originally a paper manufacturer.

Back in the states, McDonald’s is the world’s sixth most valuable company. Google jumped up three spots on the list this year to number seven. Toyota fell two spots to number eight, which isn’t surprising given the year the auto industry has had. Rounding out the top ten are Intel and, of course, Disney.