FatWire Buys Wiki Maker Infostoria

FatWire Software, which makes Web content management software, is going to buy Web collaboration startup Infostoria for an undisclosed sum.

Setauket, N.Y.-based Infostoria makes software that enables users to build wikis in one click and create blogs, and offers a content integration platform to help organizations manage, find and share content stored in various repositories, FatWire CEO Yogesh Gupta told eWEEK.

The buy, announced Oct. 29, throws the spotlight on the increasing intersection of Web-based software. Businesses are tapping into other aspects of Web software to improve their existing offerings and stand apart from rivals.

By adding a collaboration component to its FatWire Content Server, FatWire will be better positioned to help its businesses employees, customers and partners work together, Gupta said.

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For example, a large business may have a marketing department working with an outside advertising agency and they may want to collaborate on a new ad campaign and product launch. Wikis and blogs can be used to enhance this collaboration process.

Arguably, the best return on investment is if the use of the blogs and wikis boosts customer loyalty and even sales.

"Its about trying to build a community around your product and around things that make people interested and excited about owning your product," Gupta said.

Ideally, the Infostoria assets will help FatWire, of Mineola, N.Y., better compete with WCM incumbents Interwoven, Vignette and Oracle (thanks to the Stellent purchase), as well new vendors such as Percussion Software and Ektron. FatWire has roughly 450 enterprise customers.

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In contrast, Infostoria with about six enterprise customers, was plucked from a handful of larger Web collaboration software makers, including SocialText, Atlassian Software and MindTouch.

One of the reasons FatWire picked Infostoria is that its platform and wiki products are, like the FatWire Content Server, based on the Java language.

Infostoria founder and CEO Dmitri Tcherevik will join FatWire as chief technology officer. Gupta said FatWire will start selling Infostoria software immediately and is whipping up an integration road map to spell out how FatWire will integrate Infostorias assets.

Forrester Research analyst G. Oliver Young said the purchase makes sense at a time when wikis, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools are being increasingly tucked into business processes.

"For a company like FatWire to be able to put a blog, a wiki or whatever content creation mechanism they have on the front end of their system just makes it all that more valuable," Young told eWEEK.

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