SAS Buys Marketmax

SAS Institute Inc. announced Wednesday the acquisition of retail planning and merchandising intelligence software developer Marketmax Inc.

The acquisition will give SAS Marketmaxs Retail Merchandise Planning applications and team of retail industry experts as SAS continues to build out its retail business intelligence offerings.

Retail is a key vertical focus of SAS. The Cary, N.C.-based company is expected to unveil a new set of vertical applications for the retail industry by early next year.

SAS will look to combine Marketmaxs merchandise planning and analytics software with its own BI, forecasting and retail optimization technologies, SAS officials said.

Marketmaxs technology is used to help retailers and their suppliers plan and tailor merchandise assortments and optimize in-store visual merchandising and inventory to avoid running out of stock or having to drastically mark down slow-moving merchandise.

SAS will establish a Marketmax division which will operate from the current Marketmax headquarters in Wakefield, Mass. Marketmax UK employees will become SAS employees and report to Phil Bond, managing director of SAS UK.