FICO has acquired the Hadoop-based analytics technology developed by Karmasphere in Cupertino, Calif.
FICO says it will integrate Karmasphere's technology into its FICO Analytic Cloud to make it easier for analysts and business users to use open-source Hadoop software for analyzing large sets of data.
FICO acquired the software and the IP assets behind it, and hired nine people from the Karmasphere staff, including its founder and six product developers, "who will continue to develop these assets" and help sell it to additional customers," Doug Clare, vice president of product management at FICO, explained in a phone interview. "We didn't acquire the company," he said. "And I cannot comment on the ongoing existence of Karmasphere," as a separate company.
FICO's Analytic Cloud was introduced in 2013 and will continue to be rolled out in 2014. It includes the FICO Decision Management Platform, FICO's analytic applications, and other predictive analytics components. Hadoop is expected to expand the type and size of data pools the FICO product can handle.
FICO's goal is to simplify the complexity of Hadoop and expand its customers' access to analytics, Clare says. The plan is to help even the least sophisticated users ask questions and get answers, Clare says.
FICO also recently acquired Infocentricity, a provider of two cloud-based products that develop predictive analytic algorithms that can be used to solve business problems.
