CMGI Buys OCS for $24.5 Million

CMGI (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CMGI]]), the Waltham, MA, provider of supply chain management software and services (and the owner of @Ventures, an early-stage-focused venture firm that often pops up in these pages), said this week that it will pay $24.5 million in cash to acquire Dedham, MA-based Open Channel Solutions. The company’s main product, Poetic, helps software makers manage the way they license their software to customers. CMGI said Poetic will enhance its own ModusLink supply chain services business “by managing the entitlements associated with both physical and electronic delivery of digital content.” Through @Ventures, CMGI already owned a minority stake in OCS, which was a 2001 spinoff of Modus Media International (which CMGI acquired in 2004).

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/