Bronte Media

Following hot on the heels of the Who’s Calling sale, eStara has itself been acquired for a similarly priced $48m by Art Technology Group. The transaction includes $2m in cash and the rest stock.

While the two firms both operate in the click to call world and have both dipped their toes (even it is mainly from a PR standpoint) in the pay per call advertising world, there are significant differences. Who’s Calling mainly helps offline advertisers like car dealers figure out their return on investment, whereas eStara is more known for helping online merchants with their customer service.

ATG is a provider of commerce tools that helps retailers figure out why consumers abandon their shopping carts among other things and helps them deliver a better user experience.

EStara has been growing fast in recent times, on track to over double their revenue this year. From the Reuters wrap: “EStara reported revenue of $6.5 million in the first six months of 2006 and $7.4 million for full-year 2005, the statement said.”

I have heard rumors that there is more financing/m&a activity on its way for click to call, call tracking and pay per call firms that will bring consolidation to the industry. It makes sense as the call tracking component becomes a commodity and other types of advertising firms and analytics vendors look to measure and invoice using the phone call as the billing event. Stay tuned.