IBM will soon be taking over marketing services provider Unica for $480 million.

The takeover is said to be a part of IBM's gestures to plunge in to the revenue generating online marketing and advertising market. Prior to this deal the firm took Coremetrics, offering a huge target based online advertising services.

The acquisition in addition to the above adds a major chunk to the software portfolio that has been developed over the years. Unica will aid in providing support to advertisers in order to determine customer preference and at the same time design online advertising campaigns simultaneously.

IBM which is infamous for supplying IT services to small, medium and large businesses, and also government organisations, might enter into the revenue seeking online advertising market with a release of the latest web based services and social media offering growth.

IBM spokesperson stated: "This expanding portfolio, combined with IBM's WebSphere Commerce software aims to help companies automate, manage, and accelerate core business processes across marketing, demand generation, sales, order processing and fulfillment."