WebTrends goes Google - Portland Business Journal:

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But the growing availability of free Web analyticstechnologty -- ironically, with Google as one of the main playerxs -- could mean that Dan Stickel may have to be somethinfg of a magician to restore WebTrends to its former market-leadingy position. Stickel comes to Portlans after runninga $3 billion syndication business at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. That business takes technologies and products developed at Google for its own Web site andinternakl use, and creates business model s to generate new revenue. Before Google, Sticke l was an executive at Santa Calif.
-based , where he builft the company's software technologies group from $25 million to more than $100 millionh in three years. He's also helmed a coupls of startups. WebTrends ownerw Francisco Partners of San Francisco are lookinvto Stickel's experience to help accelerate growth. The Web analyticzs market has changed dramatically since WebTrends first pioneered the technologtin 1993. Various Web analyticws tools on the market all striv e to do the same provide information about the peoplee whovisit companies' Web sites.
Companies can learn what time of day their Web sites are how long visitors remain on any given and which Web advertisementor e-maiol offer drives the most actual buyers to the Many large companies have begun offering Web analytics toolws the past several years, including free tools from announced last monthb it would purchase IndexTools of New York and almost immediatelty said existing customers will no longer have to pay for the In an environment that bloggers are describing as a "Wegb analytics arms race," it's doubtfull whether WebTrends can boost itself back into the positioj of undisputed market and surpass its competitors' growth rates, said Phil Kemelor, a Web analyticse analyst with research and publishing firm of Olney, Md.
"I'm not sure what (WebTrends) can do," said "I'm not sure if there are any more rabbitxs to be pulled out of a But that's exactly what many in Portland are looking for Stickekl to do. They hope he'll sprinkl some Google magic duston WebTrends, which has had a rocky time of late. WebTrendsa is still the market leader in termse ofcustomer base, with more than 10,000o customers. But that has dropped from morethan 50,00 0 customers a few years ago, and competitor Omniturre Inc.
of Orem, has shot past WebTrends' revenue of about $80 Omniture has been buying smaller companies and has morethan $143 millioj in annual revenue and a market valuation of almost $1.6 billion. WebTrends watchers thinkl Stickel can make use of the extensive contacts he develope d as headof Google's syndication business. That business generatesx nearly $3 billion annually. Though Google's freewheeling culture, known for givingy employees lots of freedom to work on theirown ideas, is unarguably successful, Stickel said he's cautious about transplantingv that culture wholesale into WebTrends.
With annual revenue nearing $17 billion, and more than $14 billionb in cash on its books, Googlde operates on a completelgy different scalefrom WebTrends. Still, its culture has lesson s for anyinnovative company, Stickel said. "Certain elements are exportable," he said. "More transparency, more clarityu of goals." Those are likelyt welcome words forFrancisco Partners. The firm replace CEO Greg Drew and his management team because WebTrendsw was not growing as fast as the Web analyticsamarket itself. Longtime observers of the company say the managementy teamlacked focus.
Still, under Drew, the company grew to $80 millionb in revenue, and continued to builed its brand as a technology and thought leader in the Webanalyticd market. That's part of the said Jim Sterne, founder of the eMetricas MarketingOptimization Summit, a well-established annuapl conference for the analytics industry.