Software, rights management, licenses

CMGI Buys OCS for $24.5 Million

Wade Roush 2/22/08

CMGI (NASDAQ: CMGI), the Waltham, MA, provider of supply chain management software and services (and the owner of @Ventures, an early-stage-focused venture firm that often pops up in these pages), said this week that it will pay $24.5 million in cash to acquire Dedham, MA-based Open Channel Solutions. The company’s main product, Poetic, helps software makers manage the way they license their software to customers. CMGI said Poetic will enhance its own ModusLink supply chain services business “by managing the entitlements associated with both physical and electronic delivery of digital content.” Through @Ventures, CMGI already owned a minority stake in OCS, which was a 2001 spinoff of Modus Media International (which CMGI acquired in 2004).