Accenture to Acquire Maxamine and Memetrics, Expanding Digital Marketing Sciences Services.

NEW YORK -- Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has acquired Memetrics Holdings Pty Limited and has agreed to acquire the business of Maxamine Inc., expanding its digital marketing sciences services capabilities. Memetrics and Maxamine are privately held companies that provide testing and optimization services to help companies improve the marketing effectiveness and financial returns from their websites and other digital marketing investments. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Maxamine, founded in 1997, scans websites to identify implementation problems which undermine online marketing performance. Its services provide guidance to help clients improve website optimization, enhance customer experience, and decrease privacy-related and other risks.

Memetrics, founded in 1999, helps companies improve the impact of their online marketing campaigns through dynamic optimization of content presented to customers. Memetric's proprietary testing technology analyzes thousands of variations of Web pages to determine what page format and context will deliver the best performance to each targeted customer set, allowing marketers to present more-targeted messaging to high-value customers on their websites.

Both companies have headquarters in California and operations in Australia and the United Kingdom.

"These acquisitions uniquely position Accenture as a world leader in supplying digital optimization services for clients as they continue to increase their investments in online marketing and websites," said Jeffrey Merrihue, CEO of Accenture Marketing Sciences. "We will now be able to help marketers measure and optimize their overall marketing investments across traditional and digital channels in a way that profitably enhances the overall customer experience."

Maxamine and Memetrics employees will be offered positions with Accenture's Marketing Sciences practice. Additionally, top executives of Memetrics and Maxamine will be offered positions as senior executives within Accenture's Marketing Sciences practice.

The Memetrics acquisition closed Dec. 31, 2007. The Maxamine acquisition is subject to customary approvals and closing conditions and is expected to close within 30 days.

"Memetrics and Accenture share a vision to deliver more strategic marketing based on data-driven decision-making," said Hikaru Phillips, Memetrics founder. "Working together, we will now have the scale, technology and people to truly transform the marketing function."

Stephen Kirkby, Ph.D., a founder of Maxamine, said, "The solutions that Maxamine developed will be advantageous to Accenture Marketing Sciences clients as they seek to strengthen their online marketing efforts. We look forward to seamlessly integrating our capabilities with Accenture."

Accenture Marketing Sciences, a specialized practice within Accenture, provides marketing measurement and optimization services for media, marketing, retail and digital channels to increase the return on their marketing and media investments. Accenture Marketing Sciences has more than 400 clients across Europe, the United States, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, including more than half of the top 100 global advertisers.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With more than 175,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Forward-Looking Statements 

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: Accenture and Maxamine will not be able to close the transaction in the time period anticipated, or at all, which is dependent on the parties' ability to satisfy certain closing conditions; the transactions might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; our business could be negatively affected if we cannot expand and develop our services and solutions in response to changes in technology and client demand; the management consulting, systems integration and technology and outsourcing markets are highly competitive and we might not be able to compete effectively; our business could be negatively affected by economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on our clients' business and levels of business activity; our work with government clients exposes us to additional risks in the government contracting process; clients may not be satisfied with our services; our business could be negatively affected by legal liability that results from our providing solutions or services; our results could be adversely affected if our clients terminate their contracts with us on short notice; our outsourcing services subject us to operational and financial risk; liabilities could arise if our subcontractors or other third parties cannot deliver their project contributions on time or at all; our results of operations may be adversely affected by the type and level of technology spending by our clients; our profitability may suffer if we are not able to maintain favorable pricing rates and utilization rates, if we cannot control our costs, or if we cannot anticipate the cost and complexity of performing our work; our global operations are subject to complex risks, some of which might be beyond our control; our growth and our ability to compete may be adversely affected if we cannot attract, retain and motivate our employees or efficiently utilize their skills, including those personnel currently employed by Maxamine and Memetrics; our business may be adversely affected if we cannot manage the organizational challenges associated with the size and expansion of our company; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations.