Teradata buys its way into analytics market

Leading data warehousing firm Teradata has agreed to complete an acquisition of analytics firm Aster Data for $263m (£162m).

This is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2011 and follows the acquisition of an 11 per cent stake in the company in September last year. The additional $263m (£162m) will cover the remainder, net of debt and other expenses.

The move follows its recent acquisition of marketing software company Aprimo.

The move also goes against a recent statement by Teradata CTO Stephen Brobst (above) to Computing in which he stated that his company's strategy was one of partnership rather than acquisition.

"People ask me when we're going to acquire MicroStrategy or Informatica. The answer is we're not going to, it's not our strategy. We're not trying to be Oracle or IBM," he said at the time.

These acquisitions could indicate a change of strategy for the company, which Gartner recently placed ahead of its competitors in its Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems.

That said, the company still does not acquire at the same rate as analytics competitor IBM, which made several acquisitions in the same market in Q4 2010, shortly after the purchase of data warehouse appliance firm Netezza.

Teradata was not available for comment at the time of writing.