Upland Software Acquires Clickability

Just over two years ago, Limelight Networks announced the acquisition of Clickability, a software-as-a-service Web content management (WCM) provider that enables digital marketers to create, manage and publish content on any device, as well as track and personalize visitor experiences. By adding Web content management capabilities to its existing video platform, site acceleration, mobility and advertising services, Limelight was poised to provide an integrated suite of marketing services.

So we were surprised when, on December 23, Limelight announced the sale of Clickability to Upland Software, a cloud provider of enterprise work management (EWM) software designed to provide end-to-end management process for prioritizing, allocating, managing, and monitoring resources and work throughout the enterprise.

Many changes have taken place in the WCM space. Vendors have expanded into email marketing, digital asset management, campaign management and, in some cases, an expanded set of marketing solutions branded as digital, Web or customer experience management. Upland appears to be bucking the trend by combining WCM with EWM with the stated purpose of developing a suite of customer-focused solutions to support and enhance customer relationships.

Upland has yet to announce its full go-to-market strategy, but the latest release from Clickability includes a customer portal that provides social networking, access to customer documentation and the ability to submit support ticket requests. Upland is bringing back the Clickability name to re-ignite buzz around the platform, which seemed to have faded under Limelight in recent months. Upland has stated that it will continue to support current Clickability customers in the same capacity as was provided by Limelight.

We’ll be interested to observe whether customers that took advantage of Limelight’s Orchestrate Video product (which is separate from Clickability and leverages Limelight’s bandwidth capacity and cloud storage for online video publishing) will incur additional costs for future use as their contract terms expire. We’ll also be watching how the market reacts to this latest acquisition and its new twist on WCM.