IBM announced its plans to acquire software firm Unica this morning, with a payout of about $480 million in cash. The acquisition will built out IBM’s portfolio of business software and technology services, and comes on the heels of acquiring DataCap.

Unica develops enterprise marketing management software, providing tools for companies to organize and track their web advertising campaigns. The software offers a range of enterprise tools, including web and customer analytics, email and search marketing, and website and marketing optimization for publishers.

In addition to Unica and DataCap, IBM’s made a number of acquisitions this year, namely towards building its enterprise cloud services. As this space heats up, businesses are gaining a wider selection of self-service tool kits for managing their marketing needs. The company’s statement;

“IBM understands the demands on today’s organizations to transform core business processes in functions such as marketing with intelligence and automation,” said Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM Industry Solutions. “Unica was a clear choice for IBM based on its power to automate a broad set of marketing capabilities and its established reputation for delivering customer success in marketing to organizations around the world.”

The cash offering for Unica amounts to around $21 per Unica share, which is a premium price for IBM to pay, considering Unica’s shares were at $9.55 at market close on Thursday. The acquisition comes just days after Cisco revealed a dismal outlook for the next quarter, giving NASDAQ quite a shake-up yesterday.