KPMG Will Acquire Link Analytics To Help Clients Leverage Advanced Analytical Capabilities To Solve Complex, High Value Problems

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, Dec. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- KPMG LLP will acquire the analytical solutions company Link Analytics LLC, significantly expanding the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm's sophisticated data and analytics capabilities to help clients drive growth through customer acquisition and loyalty, and big data monetization.

Named to CIO Review's 2013 List of "Most Promising Big Data Companies," Link Analytics provides its clients with world-class scalable and repeatable analytical technology, large scale data management, and innovative consulting services. The integration of Link Analytics with KPMG's existing data and analytics solutions will help the firm's clients gain deeper insights into their customers, monetize untapped data, and make real-time data-driven decisions to improve every facet of the customer experience.

The transaction is expected to close in the near term. Financial terms of the agreement will not be disclosed.  

"Data is everywhere, and today's consumers are more informed and discerning regarding products and services, and this has produced a critical need for companies to understand what drives those behaviors," said Alton Adams, a KPMG principal in Management Consulting and U.S. leader for Customer Strategy & Growth.  "Increasingly, the ability to gather, analyze, contextualize and disseminate data is critical to our clients' growth aspirations, and the acquisition of Link Analytics dramatically accelerates our ability to embed advanced analytics inside our clients' organizations."

Link Analytics, based in Atlanta with teams in Knoxville, Tenn., and Seattle, works with Fortune 1000 companies in the United States. The company specializes in developing scalable business analytics applications, including customer experience, large-scale social network analysis, and network optimization.  Link Analytics' solutions operate on various platforms, from Netezza to Teradata to Hadoop, while also utilizing shared memory computing resources that rank among the world's most powerful. They are the only analytics company represented in the Graph 500 computing benchmark.

"The global traction and experience of KPMG professionals, coupled with our advanced technology and applications, will produce a market-leading suite of analytically driven solutions to help clients grow their businesses," said William Hakes, Ph.D., CEO of Link Analytics.

Sean Groer, Chief Analytics Officer at Link Analytics, added, "The union of KPMG's scalability and domain experience with our  large-scale data systems, high performance computing, and data management skills will be a competitive advantage for KPMG's clients."

Lynne Doughtie, Vice Chair for Advisory at KPMG, said,  "Achieving measureable and sustainable growth requires businesses to deeply analyze how their customers make decisions today in order to accurately anticipate what customers will expect in the future.

"Adding Link Analytics' experienced analytic professionals and proprietary methodologies provides a platform to accelerate the design and delivery of analytic solutions to help our clients turn Big Data into actionable insights," she added. "This acquisition is the latest component of KPMG's strategy to provide highly customized, actionable and repeatable solutions to our clients' most complex data problems."

In November, KPMG International announced the launch of KPMG Capital, a fund created to accelerate investment in the development of data and analytic services and solutions.

"Improving and implementing advanced data analysis across all of KPMG's offerings can assist clients in gaining a more precise view of available information," said Steve Hill, Vice Chair for Strategic Investments, which helps drive firmwide innovation and future service offerings. "KPMG's D&A capabilities focus on helping executives drive fact-based decision-making to generate new value across their organizations, as well as provide companies ways to measure and monitor the resulting impact of those advances."

About KPMG LLP
KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.kpmg.com/us), is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"). KPMG International's member firms have 155,000 professionals, including more than 8,600 partners, in 155 countries.

About KPMG International
KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 155 countries and have 155,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.

SOURCE KPMG LLP