by Jim Lundy
We are only in the second month of 2018 and the acquisition fever is here. Many deals have gone down in the last two weeks, and this blog highlights the most noteworthy in the digital workplace landscape.
Thomas Lee Partners Buys Alfresco
Alfresco has taken several rounds of financing but in the end, Boston-based Thomas Lee Partners decided to buy it out. Thomas Lee has more investments in financial services firms than in the content management market. That said, one of its recent acquisitions—real estate platform provider Ten-X—is located in San Mateo, the same location as Alfresco.
We wonder if Thomas Lee is looking to dive more into SaaS given the opportunity in overall digital transformation.
Thoma Bravo Buys Nintex, Names New CEO
Workflow and Content Automation (WCA) provider Nintex was sold to private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Unlike Alfresco, Thoma Bravo is an active buyer of digital workplace firms. Thoma Bravo already owns Hyland Software and Kofax, so it is building out a portfolio—a move that is not that dissimilar to what OpenText has been doing since 2005.
LogMeIn Buys Jive Communications, Signals Readiness for UCC
LogMeIn made a shrewd move to purchase Utah-based Jive Communications for $357 million. This makes it well-positioned to compete in the larger UCC market. LogMeIn made a big move in 2016-’17 with its purchase of the GoTo division of Citrix. Join.me and GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar are all about meetings and webinars.
With Utah-based and privately-held Jive Communications, LogMeIn adds a full UCaaS (voice in the cloud) solution to its stable. LogMeIn sometimes keeps product lines separate. With Jive, it has the opportunity to offer a full UCC platform. More on this in upcoming research.
SAP Buys CallidusCloud: How Will It Fare in Sales Performance?
SAP bought CallidusCloud for 2.6 billion, a 21% premium—so, it didn’t overpay. SAP has been making some sharp moves. Its purchase of Hybrid Commerce has helped its business significantly, and Concur (the SaaS travel firm) also continues to be one of the top options for travel and expense. CallidusCloud was doing its own roll-ups, so it will be interesting to see how it can maintain its growth under the SAP umbrella.
There is more to analyze on this deal and we will be evaluating CallidusCloud’s sales-focused Litmos Learning Solution in our upcoming Tech SpectrumTM on Sales Coaching and Learning.
Private Equity, a Mixed Bag
Private equity firms have been invading enterprise software since Vista Equity made its move to buy SumTotal Systems in 2009. Vista Equity is the firm that other private equity firms want to emulate. While some private equity firms buy companies as assets to extract cash and then sell them, others want to grow them.
Needless to say, it can get messy quickly. Aragon will be doing more analysis of private equity in 2018, in part because enterprises need to be aware of what is happening to their current and future vendors.
Given the new business-friendly tax incentives in the U.S., we expect to see even more M&A in 2018. Look for more DealBook posts from Aragon.