Episerver, a web content and commerce technology platform provider, has agreed to acquire Optimizely, whose technology is designed to help companies develop and test personalized content to engage customers on websites and apps.

Episerver did not reveal what it has agreed to pay for Optimizely, whose clients include Gap Inc., IBM Corp. and events tickets seller StubHub.com. Episerver’s clients include such companies as SPI Health and Safety, retinal imaging equipment manufacturer Optos, and restaurant chain Toppers Pizza.

Alex Atzberger, CEO, Episerver

Alex Atzberger, CEO of Episerver, described Optimizely as “the most significant transformation in our company’s history”–one that he expects “will set a new industry standard for digital experience platforms.” The combination of Episerver and Optimizely, he added, “will transform digital experience creation and optimization.”

Justin Anovick, Episerver’s chief product officer, says the combination of Episerver’s and Optimizely’s technology will help online companies to develop and optimize content simultaneously. “It doesn’t make sense to have these as separate functions,” he says. As a merchandiser or marketer defines web page content, he adds, they can test how well customers respond to it by different page layouts and pricing, including B2B contract pricing.

Testing complicated B2B content

In addition, Anovick says, Episerver expects to increase the ability of B2B companies to better interact with their customers. “Since B2B companies are so much more complicated [than retail businesses], we feel that adding experimentation to their mix will help them understand what their customers want.” He notes, for example, that B2B online sellers will be able to test varying price promotions for particular groups of SKUs that contracted B2B customers are authorized to purchase.

Anovick says Episerver and Optimizely will integrate their technology systems at three crucial points in Episerver’s B2B Commerce Cloud: at the web page display, for testing different product displays and promotions; in the production information management (PIM) system, for accurate display of product content; and at the data level, combining data on digital assets, transactions and user activity to test for optimal customer experience.

Episerver and Optimizely say they expect the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter and will continue to operate independently until then.

Episerver, with dual headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire, and Stockholm, Sweden, is a privately held portfolio company of Insight Partners, which purchased it in 2018 at $1.16 billion. In December 2019, Episerver purchased Minneapolis-based Insite Software, a B2B-focused digital commerce platform now known as Episerver B2B Commerce Cloud.

Optimizely, based in San Francisco, was founded in 2009 and has raised more than $200 million in funding from investors including Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, according to TechCrunch.

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