Decades of Hard Work Lead to Unica’s $480M Acquisition

Often, when a big acquisition is announced, you read a little about the company being acquired, a little about the company purchasing it, and maybe a few quotes from executives on both sides of the transaction. If you do not take the time to look beyond these quick facts, though, you might be surprised at what you are missing.

Last month, IBM acquired Waltham-based Unica for $480 million. During his life, Unica’s co-founder, Yuchun Lee, has done everything from participate in MIT’s now famous (or perhaps infamous) blackjack team, upon which the movie “21” and the book “Bringing Down the House” are based, to steer his company through four recession and finally an IPO in 2005. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/a7nO8E)

“The hardest thing is having the emotional fortitude to have conviction in what you think is the right path,” Lee explained. “It’s kind of like blackjack. You may get a string of bad hands, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an edge on the market.”

At the age of 13, Lee moved to the United States from Taiwan. While still in high school, Lee launched his first software company in Houston, TX. In the mid-1980s, Lee moved to Boston where he got both his undergraduate and master’s degrees from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science.

Along with MIT grads David Cheung and Ruby Kennedy, Lee formed Unica in 1992. Initially, the company’s focus was on data mining and financial modeling. Gradually, Unica shifted into the marketing software industry.

“Marketing was not automated then,” Lee said, justifying his company’s change is focus. “We thought it was pretty interesting, and a big-budget item for companies.”

In between trips to Las Vegas, where he gambled on MITs Blackjack Team, Lee worked to keep his company in the black into the late 1990s. While Lee has not confirmed putting any of his winnings towards funding Unica, he ran his company for years without any funding from outside investors, leading some to believe it is likely. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/a7nO8E)

Unica brought in $48 million from its IPO along with $60 million in product sales in 2005. The company was growing, healthy, and appeared to be unstoppable.

“2009 was the only year in our history that we declined,” Lee explained. “Customers stopped buying.”

This setback in 2009 proved to be relatively brief. Just months into 2010, Unica was hiring again. Presently, the company has over 500 employees and more than 1,500 customers. Of course, this year Unica also caught the attention of IBM and is now owned by the company.

“IBM is in a really good position to shape the conversation in this market, to drive adoption in general… Marketing is undergoing a major transformation… through digital and social channels. The trend is very clear in our mind. The move is toward digital... even for smaller companies... My plan is to stay on. I’m personally very excited.” (Image courtesy: http://www.imb.com/)

It is clear from this summary of Lee’s accomplishments that he has worked incredibly hard during his life and consequently enjoyed many successes. While it has to be strange in some ways for him to hand over the company he started 18 years ago, I have no doubt that he will continue to grow and succeed as an employee of IBM. Finding a story like Lee’s makes you happy you took a moment to look a little deeper in IBM’s purchase of Unica.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/9QstIE, http://bit.ly/a7nO8E]

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