US company Gilbarco Inc. has acquired Israeli marketing intelligence company Odysii Technologies Ltd.. Tel Aviv based Odysii has pioneered an analytics and consumer messaging platform at the point of purchase designed to be integrated with the point of sale (POS), loyalty programs, mobile phones, and other consumer applications. No financial details were disclosed but market sources believe that the acquisition is for $30-40 million.
Odysii CEO Adi Eyal and VP technology Yair Goldfinger founded the company, then named TVeez, in 2003. Goldfinger was one of the legendary founders of ICQ, the world's first messaging service, which was sold to AOL in 1998 for $400 million.
Gilbarco and Odysii had announced a strategic partnership in 2012 and have since been marketing the Odysii upselling platform as Impulse. Gilbarco is making the acquisition to providing technology that helps their retail fuel customers increase in-store sales.
Impulse is a consumer-centric messaging platform that integrates to the POS. It increases shopper basket size by communicating the store's promotional calendar, including store specials, loyalty information and offers. Through cloud-based services, Impulse provides an upselling message unique to each consumer by performing analytics in real-time. The system is uniquely flexible to meet the needs of the retailer and is not solely dependent on national advertising.
Eyal said, We are pleased to advance our partnership with Gilbarco by becoming an official part of the team. We look forward to delivering a rich roadmap of targeted merchandising and loyalty features for the POS, as well as other Gilbarco technology."
Gilbarco North America president Stephem Moule said, "Our customers will benefit from this powerful Impulse platform, now with even tighter integration to our Passport POS, as well as future loyalty and mobile applications. As they deploy their EMV technology upgrades, retailers will be able to use Impulse and Passport to improve their loyalty programs, increase consumer retention, and differentiate their sites."
Odysii will become part of Gilbarco's organization, in a new division that will continue to operate from their existing facility in Tel Aviv.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 14, 2015
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