KPMG Nabs D&A Firm Link Analytics

The auditing giant KPMG today announced it has completed the acquisition of Link Analytics, an Atlanta, Georgia-based data & analytics (D&A) firm that developed and data analytics products and services. KPMG plans to combine Link Analytics’ technology with its own analytics offering to help its clients make more money.

Link Analytics developed analytics products and solutions for Fortune 1000 companies, primarily those in the telecommunications industry. Among its products were SwitchRX, a pre-built analytics solution designed to help mobile carriers reduce spending associated with customer churn. Its offerings ran on existing data warehouse platforms, including those offered by Netezza and Teradata, as well as Hadoop, according to KPMG.

“Our solutions are designed to leverage data, to bring data to bear, that oftentimes was captured without the intent of even being used in the first place, or perhaps to ever be joined with other types of data,” Link Analytics founder Will Hakes says in a video on his company’s website. “Our solutions can bring answers to the table that leave our clients saying, ‘Wow I didn’t even know I could ask that question, let alone answer that question.'”

KPMG announced its intention to buy Link Analytics in December. The buy appears largely a talent acquisition for KPMG, which was once considered one of the “Big 5” accounting firms, and which provides audit, tax, and advisory services to thousands of companies around the world.

The acquisition of Link Analytics will increase the firm’s capability to provide customizable and repeatable solutions to its clients’ complex data problems, stated Lynne Doughtie, Vice Chair for Advisory at KPMG. “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

Alton Adams, a KPMG principal in Management Consulting, says the acquisition will help the firm provide solutions that gather, analyze, contextualize, and disseminate data for client. “The acquisition of Link Analytics dramatically accelerates our ability to embed advanced analytics inside our clients’ organizations,” he stated.

Link Analytics, which was named to CIO Review’s 2013 list of “Most Promising Big Data Companies,” had recently joined Intel’s Network Builder Program, where it planned to use its skills in building analytics systems for telecommunication providers to build a reference architecture, with an emphasis on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Terms of the deal with KPMG were not disclosed.

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