Cloud & SaaS Acquisitions in 2017

Sprout Social, a Chicago-based provider of social media management and analytics solutions, acquired Seattle-based social analytics firm Simply Measured to expand its analytics and listening capabilities. The purchase integrates Simply Measured’s full-funnel social analytics into Sprout’s platform to broaden product offering for brands and agencies and strengthen Sprout’s market position in social analytics.

Cisco agreed to acquire BroadSoft, a provider of cloud PBX, unified communications, team collaboration and contact center software, for $1.9 billion (paying $55 per share). The deal strengthens Cisco's software- and cloud-focused collaboration portfolio and brings BroadSoft's large service-provider customer base and cloud voice/contact-center capabilities into Cisco's applications group.

Serenova, an Austin-based contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider, acquired TelStrat, a provider of call recording, workforce optimization (WFO) and analytics solutions. The deal adds TelStrat's Engage WFO product and customers to Serenova's CxEngage platform to accelerate capability expansion, cross-sell opportunities and improved contact-center experience offerings.

Insight Venture Partners is purchasing the shares of Bullhorn owned by Vista Equity Partners to fund Bullhorn's next phase of growth. The investment will be used to accelerate product development, expand the company's global footprint, and support continued growth of Bullhorn's cloud-based staffing and recruiting platform.

Higher Logic acquired marketing automation platforms Informz, Inc. and Real Magnet, Inc. to integrate advanced email and marketing-automation capabilities into its cloud-based community and engagement platform. The deal expands Higher Logic’s product capabilities for lifecycle engagement, enabling deeper segmentation, personalization, and unified member/customer interactions across marketing and community channels.

Elsevier acquired bepress, a Berkeley, California–based provider of hosted institutional repositories and research showcasing tools, to integrate bepress’s Digital Commons platform and analytics into Elsevier’s research products. The bepress team will remain in Berkeley and the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

JMI Equity has made a strategic growth investment in Arena Solutions, the provider of cloud-based product lifecycle management (PLM) and quality management software. JMI partners Brian Hersman and Suken Vakil will join Arena's board to support the company's next phase of product and market expansion.

Private equity firm New Capital Partners has made a growth investment in LoyaltyExpress, a Woburn, Massachusetts-based provider of marketing automation and cloud-based CRM solutions for banks and mortgage companies. The capital will be used to accelerate product innovation, expand MarketingCentral and Salesforce offerings, and hire additional staff to support growth.

GroupBy Inc., a Toronto-based eCommerce search and merchandising provider, has acquired Austin-based product data enrichment software company Edgecase. The acquisition integrates Edgecase’s product data intelligence into GroupBy’s Searchandiser platform to create an end-to-end site search and merchandising solution; terms were not disclosed.

Boston Logic, a Providence Equity–backed real estate SaaS platform, has acquired Propertybase, a Boulder-based real estate CRM and marketing SaaS provider. Propertybase's management and its ~48-person team will remain in place as the combined company maintains both product offerings and seeks to expand its US and global footprint.

SolarWinds has acquired Scout Server Monitoring and relaunched the product as SolarWinds Pingdom Server Monitor. The deal, which closed May 5, 2017, brings Scout's SaaS-based server monitoring technology and co-founder/CTO Andre Lewis into SolarWinds to expand its SaaS monitoring portfolio for DevOps and cloud-native teams.

Palo Alto-based private equity firm HGGC acquired Norwalk, Connecticut–headquartered etouches, a provider of cloud event management software and venue sourcing, in a transaction that closed May 9, 2017. Prior owners and senior management retained and reinvested for a meaningful minority stake; terms were not disclosed. HGGC said it will provide capital to expand services and enhance etouches' technology to capture more of the global event management market.

Genstar Capital has made a majority equity investment in Blue Star Sports to fund strategic acquisitions and accelerate the company's organic growth. Blue Star Sports — a Frisco, Texas–based provider of sports management software and payment solutions — will continue to have material ownership by founder Rob Wechsler, the Jerry Jones family, and Providence Strategic Growth while using the new capital to expand in North America and internationally.

Daxko, a Birmingham-based provider of software for member-based health and wellness organizations, has acquired Zen Planner, a Highlands Ranch/Denver-based member management SaaS provider that serves over 5,500 gyms and studios. The acquisition expands Daxko's reach into the small business segment of the health & wellness market and adds Zen Planner's payments and integrated websites capabilities to Daxko's product portfolio.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired Core Informatics, a Branford, Connecticut–based provider of cloud-based laboratory informatics platforms including LIMS, ELN and SDMS. The acquisition expands Thermo Fisher’s cloud and digital-lab capabilities by integrating Core’s Platform for Science into Thermo Fisher’s informatics and instrument ecosystem to better serve biopharma, genomics and industrial scientific customers.

Aptean has acquired irms|360 Enterprise Solutions, the cloud-based warehouse, asset and emergency management division of Upp Technology. The acquisition extends Aptean's cloud supply chain and warehouse management capabilities and brings irms|360's customer base in healthcare, government and commercial logistics into Aptean's portfolio; financial terms were not disclosed.

E2open announced it has merged with Steelwedge, acquiring the cloud-based Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) / Integrated Business Planning (IBP) vendor to embed best-in-class planning into its supply chain operating network. The deal integrates Steelwedge’s cloud planning capabilities with E2open’s multi-enterprise network to provide real-time S&OP and execution across global trading partners.

Stratoscale acquired Cambridge, MA-based Tesora, a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) provider, to augment its on-premises AWS-compatible cloud offerings and launch a fully managed relational database service. Tesora's DBaaS platform and engineering team will enable Stratoscale to deliver single-click, scalable RDS-compatible services and expand its managed database capabilities for enterprise and service-provider customers.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) acquired Cloud Cruiser, a San Jose–based maker of cloud IT consumption metering and analytics software, to bolster HPE’s Flexible Capacity hybrid cloud pay-as-you-go offering. The deal adds Cloud Cruiser’s consumption analytics capability into HPE’s Technology Services portfolio and will integrate the company into HPE’s Data Center Care/ Flexible Capacity programs; terms were not disclosed.