Omniture: Other Bidders, Other Targets

Will anyone outbid Adobe (ADBE) for Omniture (OMTR)?

Clearly, the Street thinks that is a possibility, given that OMTR shares are trading above the $21.50 a share that Adobe has agreed to pay for the Web analytics company. And some analysts agree that other interested buyers could emerge.

• Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal this morning writes that other potential buyers include Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), and “a few IT consulting firms.” In Microsoft’s case, he contends that the company needs a robust Web analytics tool to match what Google (GOOG) offers. Cisco, he adds, has said in the past that it is interested in companies in the sector.


• ThinkEquity analyst Michael Huang writes that he is “not yet convinced” that $21.50 will be the final price. His list of potential alternative bidders includes Microsoft,  IBM (IBM) and Oracle (ORCL).

Meanwhile, Aggarwal notes that in the past 8 weeks, there have now been four major deals in the Internet sector, with Amazon.com buying Zappos, Bankrate selling to private equity, Intuit buying Mint.com and now Adobe/Omniture. The analyst sees more deals coming, and provides a short list of other potential targets: ComScore (SCOR), Valueclick (VCLK) and TechTarget (TTGT).

OMTR today is up $4.51, or 26.1%, to $21.84; ADBE is down $2.33, or 6.5%, to $33.29.

Meanwhile, All three of the stocks Aggarwal thinks could be the next target are trading higher:

• SCOR is up 58 cents, or 3.7%, to $16.31.


• VCLK is up 67 cents, or 6%, to $11.91.


• TTGT is up 10 cents, o4 1.7%, to $6.