Acxiom Buys Chinese BI Firm

With an eye toward its expected expansion into Asia, Acxiom Corp. this week acquired ChinaLoop, an information-management services company based in Shanghai, China. The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.

ChinaLoop provides data-management, business-intelligence, and customer-relationship-management services to clients in Asia and global companies doing business in Asian countries. Clients include Citroen, The Financial Times, Johnson & Johnson, and Nokia.

Little Rock, Ark.-based Acxiom provides companies with marketing data and data-management and -analysis services. The company is already expanding into Europe through its acquisitions of Claritas Europe and Consodata SA within the last year.

Acxiom already has operations in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan and last month company leader Charles Morgan made a lengthy tour of Asian countries to scout business opportunities.