New York Times acquires Abuzz

New York Times acquires Abuzz

By Erich Luening
Staff Writer, CNET News

The New York Times Company today said it is acquiring Cambridge, Massachusetts-based knowledge management software maker Abuzz technologies and will add its technology to the Times' online services.

Although terms of the agreement were not disclosed, the New York Times said Times Company Digital, which includes the New York Times on the Web; the Boston Globe's Web site, Boston.com; New York Today; and Winetoday.com, plans to use Abuzz's Beehive product as a cornerstone in its strategy to develop a major resource for knowledge seekers.

"The acquisition of Abuzz is a timely and strategic fit as we build our Internet business to scale and is a major building block in our digital future," Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of Times Company Digital, said in a statement.

As reported earlier, Beehive software enables organizations to collect and distribute knowledge not captured in written form across a company or the Internet using email as its core means of transmission.

Beehive manages expertise by building profiles or other virtual communities, routing requests for knowledge directly to these experts and automatically archiving the exchanges for reuse.

Using its email-based architecture, Beehive can support large, distributed organizations, serving as an intranet application that enables employees to share expertise. The program also can act as an extranet product that helps firms to share knowledge with customers or partners and as an Internet application that lets current and potential customers share knowledge with one another, the company said.