Insight Venture Partners, a private equity firm that has invested in such growing e-commerce software firms as CloudCraze (now part of Salesforce.com Inc.) and Shopify, has agreed to acquire Episerver, a provider of e-commerce and content management technology, in a deal valued at $1.16 billion, the two companies said yesterday.

One near-term effect of the deal will be to help Episerver more quickly upgrade the technology behind its digital storefront offerings.

James Norwood, executive vice president and CMO,
Episerver

“A big part of the acquisition will be to accelerate our e-commerce capabilities,” says James Norwood, Episerver’s executive vice president for strategy and chief marketing officer. “Our e-commerce product provides about 80% of what some others provide; we want to close more of that 80 to 100% gap.”

Norwood adds that Episerver is already partly through a 3-year roadmap for upgrading its technology, including improvements to customer service and order management.

Regarding Episerver’s integration of commerce and content—an area that industry analysts and customers have cited as one of the company’s fortes—Norwood says Episerver will “continue to push that path forward.” The company’s Digital Experience Cloud platform combines digital content, commerce and marketing.

Among other improvements Episerver will accelerate include online personalization features designed to improve upselling and cross-selling; configure-price-quote processes for helping online buyers place complex orders, and applications designed to help sales reps and service agents better interact with customers.

In addition, Episerver says it will also push ahead features specifically designed for distributors and wholesalers, including improved integration with online marketplaces, product pricing optimization, and content personalized to the interests of online customers.

Deven Parekh, managing director at Insight Venture Partners, says Episerver is “at the center of a global digital transformation market” and “helping businesses of all sizes to digitize, optimize and personalize customer experiences.”

New York-based Insight Venture Partners expects the acquisition to close in the third quarter of this year, when it will transfer ownership of Episerver from investment firm Accel-KKR. Episerver maintains its North American headquarters in Nashua, N.H., and its headquarters for Europe, the Mideast and Africa in Stockholm, Sweden.

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