IBM paid $480 million for the publicly held Unica, which makes tools to help businesses analyze customer data and predict their needs and actions. had more than 1,500 customers at the time of the acquisition. The sale price of the privately-held was not disclosed.

Features from both those companies were merged to create a product that is intended to from a variety of platforms, including the Web and social media networks, and tie them to marketing efforts ranging from automated actions to sales opportunities.

This new tool, which was given the lengthy name of Coremetrics Web Analytics and Digital Marketing Optimization Suite, will be delivered from the -- no surprise there.

More than 85% of the Web analytics customers are already using cloud-based software-as-a-service through tools such as Adobe's Omniture (which in 2009 for $1.8 billion), Analytics, and Webtrends, said John Lovett, an analyst with Web Analytics Demystified, a consultancy and industry analyst firm.

IBM will be able offer its customers a hybrid system that stores clickstream data in the cloud, but also makes it available for on premise enterprise use. "That really brings the best of both worlds together," said Lovett.