IBM has acquired Xtify, a provider of cloud-based mobile messaging tools, and said the move will help extend its mobile capabilities to digital marketers across all industries, from retail to citizen engagement in the public sector, through cloud-based services.

According to an announcement, Xtify will expand IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, providing campaign creation, personalized content, dynamic real-time segmentation and analytics for all mobile devices and browsers. The technology is designed to help companies engage, convert and retain mobile application users and site visitors, IBM said. Xtify's cloud-based campaign management platform notifies mobile consumers when new content and promotions are available.

The combination of digital analytics and mobile capabilities delivered through a cloud computing model has become the great enabler for chief marketing officers and their organizations, IBM said, giving them easy access to the tools they need to engage mobile consumers. For example, Sephora, Disney Stores, The Tribune Group and 20th Century Fox are among clients using Xtify's push notifications delivered via mobile apps or sites to increase sales opportunities while fostering brand loyalty, the announcement said.

"The premise is simple: Mobile content and promotional offers are far more useful when delivered directly to consumers at the right time. Relevant and actionable offers are key to mobile marketing success," Xtify CEO Josh Rochlin said in a news release. "Xtify's mobile messaging capability combined with IBM's analytics and cloud infrastructure will provide marketers with global reach and an arsenal of rich content to influence and inform increasingly mobile consumers."

IBM said Xtify is among the most recent investments it plans to run on its SoftLayer cloud infrastructure, which operates in 140 countries. IBM said it has invested more than $6 billion in cloud-related acquisitions, including SoftLayer, which provides an easy cloud "on-ramp" to help clients quickly deploy mobile capabilities with the security, privacy and reliability of private clouds and the economy, flexibility and speed of a public cloud.

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