Data analytics is shaking up even seemingly mature markets as vendors see new avenues of growth enabled by the Internet of Things and cloud services.

Swedish telecommunications equipment maker LM Ericsson is buying MetraTech Corp., a Boston-based  provider of commerce and settlement software that boasts an added layer of “metadata-driven” smarts that provides analysis and reporting capabilities that can be used by financial professionals, engineers and sales personnel.

MetraTech claims that its offering, which is available on-premise and as a cloud service, is used in a wide range of industries across 150 countries, 36 languages and 28 currencies. Bringing the firm into the Ericsson fold will enable the Swedish giant to extend its billing support capabilities beyond helping carriers manage subscriptions to accounting for the Internet of Things, which it has designated as a key growth driver along with cloud services. And an added bonus, the deal buys a stronger presence in the US.

No financial terms were disclosed for the transaction, but the Swedish giant said all 140 employees and contractors currently employed by MetraTech will join its ranks.

Continuing on the X-axis

Novetta Solutions LLC is also taking a lateral approach to scaling its product footprint with the newly announced acquisition of  Global News Intelligence (GNI( for an undisclosed sum. The buy brings new depth to its already extensive analytics portfolio.

The McLean, Virginia-based Novetta sells analytical solutions spanning a wide range of use cases, from processing vast amounts of generic unstructured data in Hadoop through network monitoring to social identity analysis, which is what GNI specializes in. The company develops tools for quantifying sentiment and influence in specific geographical locations that are used by high-profile clients such as the Department of Defense and the Department of State.  The firm claims that its software can be used for anything from quantifying a public relations crisis to surveying opinions in remote areas where polling is impractical.

The deal better positions Novetta to target  risk-averse government agencies and enterprises that are incorporating analytics into a growing parts of their day-to-day operations. The GNI team will continue to be led by founder Bryan Rich and CEO Matthew Ennis after merging into Novetta.

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