Martech Acquisitions of 2020
While most businesses faced enormous challenges and economic hardships in 2020, Big Tech saw it as an opportunity. As their revenues grew and down markets are always a good time to consolidate, 2020 saw major acquisitions, here are few of the big ones. February GoDaddy Acquires Social Content Startup Over This follows GoDaddy’s relaunch of […]
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While most businesses faced enormous challenges and economic hardships in 2020, Big Tech saw it as an opportunity.
As their revenues grew and down markets are always a good time to consolidate, 2020 saw major acquisitions, here are few of the big ones.
February
GoDaddy Acquires Social Content Startup Over
This follows GoDaddy’s relaunch of its website-building tools under the new name Websites+Marketing, with additional features around email marketing, search engine optimisation.
Justin Tsai, Vice President, Growth and Product at GoDaddy said “Websites+Marketing now has 1 million paying customers, but as more businesses started using it, we started noticing users really had trouble creating great content as they go to those platforms.”
June
Affle acquires Appnext to strengthen mobile app recommendation platform globally.
Affle (India) Limited announced the signing of definitive agreements to acquire full control of Appnext Pte. Ltd. Talking about it, Elad Natanson, the Founder of Appnext, commented “We are thrilled to join forces with Affle in this exciting journey. Over the years, Appnext has built a robust platform that is deployed by leading global OEMs, on-device partners and thousands of apps.”
Demandbase Acquires Engagio
Demandbase and Engagio joining forces in a significant step towards fulfilling the mission of transforming how B2B organisations go-to-market.
“This acquisition combines the leader in ABM with Engagio, one of the early pioneers of the category. It will change how B2B revenue teams operate,” said Gabe Rogol, Chief Executive Officer, Demandbase.
Also Read: MarTech Radar – List of Active Marketing Technology Vendors in the Middle East
August
Impact Acquires ACTIVATE Influencer Marketing Platform
“ACTIVATE and Impact together offer intuitive, empowering technology that puts users in charge of their influencer campaigns’ success,”
Smartsheet Acquires Brandfolder Adding Content Management to Workflow Automation Offering
Combining Brandfolder’s world-class DAM capabilities with Smartsheet’s leading collaborative work management platform creates a dynamic solution that manages workflows around content and collaboration and enables organisations to break down silos and execute more effectively, and make better decisions faster.
September
Weyland Tech Agrees to Acquire Fixel AI, Leading Innovator in AI-Powered Digital Marketing Technology
Weyland will operate Fixel as a new subsidiary but expects Fixel’s technology to be immediately integrated by Logiq, Weyland’s end-to-end eCommerce marketing solution for enterprises and major U.S. brands.
Episerver Acquires Optimizely, the World’s Leading Experience Optimisation Platform
This combination created one of the most advanced digital experience platforms to optimise every customer touchpoint across the entire user journey.“The breakthrough combination of Episerver and Optimizely will transform digital experience creation and optimisation, enabling digital teams to replace guesswork with evidence-based outcomes.” said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Episerver.
Astute Acquires Socialbakers to Strengthen Customer Experience Offering with Social Media Marketing
The acquisition allows global brands to manage research, content, engagement, social listening and VoC in a single software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform. “Today, many brands are already leveraging both of the Socialbakers and Astute platforms, and we are looking forward to expanding our combined offering to brands and businesses around the world.” said Mark Zablan, CEO of Astute.
Airship Acquires Conversational Commerce Pioneer ReplyBuy to Accelerate Expansion into Mobile Commerce
This move extends Airship’s platform beyond customer engagement to directly enable commerce, as well as power one-to-one customer conversations via two-way SMS. In addition, Airship plans to extend ReplyBuy’s technology to provide turnkey commerce and payments solutions across more marketing channels, messaging platforms and industry verticals. The acquisition will provide companies of all sizes a single platform to create, manage and optimise cross-channel customer interactions and drive greater revenue more quickly.
October
Social Native Acquires Olapic to Create Next-Gen Creative Optimisation Platform
The acquisition of Olapic solidifies Social Native’s goal of delivering an all-in-one platform that provides brands with data-driven insights, scales content creation, measures the impact of their work, and optimises content for even greater results.
Olapic’s acquisition is also a critical investment for Social Native, expanding their reach globally, adding 250+ new customer logos, and significantly stepping up their revenue and staff worldwide.
TransUnion Accelerates Strategic Focus on Identity-Enabled Marketing Solutions with Agreement to Acquire Tru Optik
Tru Optik and TransUnion’s complementary capabilities will provide TransUnion’s expanded customer base with the reach, accuracy and transparency missing in current identity and audience development products.
Twilio Acquires Segment, the Market-leading Customer Data Platform
Twilio entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Segment for approximately $3.2 billion. “Combined with Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform, we can create more personalised, timely, and impactful engagement across customer service, marketing, analytics, product, and sales,” said Jeff Lawson, co-founder, and CEO of Twilio.
November
CM Group Acquires Selligent Marketing Cloud
With the acquisition of Selligent, CM Group’s annual revenue will exceed $250 million. “Selligent is an ideal fit for CM Group, and customers across all of our products stand to gain from our consistently-expanding family of brands,” said Wellford Dillard, CEO of CM Group.
Adobe Acquires Workfront the Leading Work Management Platform
“The combination of Adobe and Workfront will further accelerate Adobe’s leadership in customer experience management, providing a pioneering solution that spans the entire lifecycle of digital experiences, from ideation to activation.” said Anil Chakravarthy, executive vice president and general manager, Digital Experience Business and Worldwide Field Operations, Adobe.
Netcore Acquires Chirate, Vertex backed Hansel.io
The 3rd acquisition by Netcore after Quinto.ai and Boxx.ai in 18 months. Parminder Singh, Co-founder of Hansel, stated “This is a win-win for both companies. Adding Hansel’s capabilities to modify in-app experiences adds a significant ability to Netcore’s offering to Growth & Product teams.”
December
Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion
Salesforce, reinforced it’s focus on enterprise social by acquiring Slack in a megadeal. Co-founder and CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff announced “This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.”
