The Blog

  • September 22, 2011
  • Salesforce Buys Assistly

    Ok, sure, buy another help desk application this time for the small company market, why not.  With BMC offering a help desk solution for big companies, this makes for a certain amount of symmetry and product line completeness.

    I don’t think the announcement surprised me or any of the judges on the CRM Idol committee.  Assistly has been impressive in the competition and we’ll see where it goes.  As acquisitions go this was on the small to medium end of the Salesforce spectrum and certainly not the $300 million+ price tag that Radian6 was.

    I think the Radian6 deal might have taught Salesforce a lesson — keep a shrewd eye on the marketplace and make your acquisitions while companies with good ideas are still small.  You spend less that way.

    You can buy a half dozen Assistly’s and still have enough in your pocket for a very nice long weekend in Vegas for what Radian6 cost.  That means you can be wrong five out of six times and break even.  That’s even better than baseball where a good hitter is right three out of ten times.

    Why it took so long for Salesforce to buy Radian6 is a mystery to me.  Had they bought earlier when this promising company was less promising they would, I am sure saved some money and Radian6 would still have had a nice liquidity event.  But it is what it is Radian6 is proving to be a good pick up and hopefully Assistly will also prove out in the near future.

    Published: 13 years ago


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