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The post LinkedIn: The Greatest B2B Acquisition of All Time? LinkedIn is at $17 Billion in ARR, still growing 10%, and its whole division is wildly profitable with 50%+ operating margins! There may be better M&A deals in the history of B2B. But there cant be too many better ones. appeared first on SaaStr.
Dear SaaStr: Why Are Buyers Not Ready to Spend Big on Acquisitions as Readily Today as in the Past? The Adobe acquisition of Figma will not go through after 15 months of regulatory review. In tech at least, there are two big issues: #1. Revenues Multiples Are Down Even the best public SaaS companies are worth ~10x revenue today.
So Bloomberg and CB Insights have the latest data out on start-ups getting acquired, and 2025 is off to a record start : Wiz’s record $32 Billion acquisition by Google pushes the dollar value to a record, but you may have also missed there were 11 VC-backed $1B+ exits already in 2025, worth $54.5 billion altogether, per Bloomberg.
What drives the acquisition market of startups? If there are any increases, they tend to be in the bigger acquisitions of $500 million or more - although the sample size there is sufficiently small to conclude the trend is significant. Multi-billion dollar acquisitions, the blue bars, are the largest contributors to this swing.
In today’s complex business landscape, treating payments as just a software feature is a missed opportunity for significant growth and customer acquisition. Your payments integration is more powerful than you think. With the right partner, payments can become a strategy that leads to competitive advantages.
Dear SaaStr: Has Salesforce Overpaid for its Acquisitions, Including the $27.7 Billion Acquisition of Slack? It needed its top acquisitions to keep growing. In acquisitions, what’s much more important is that a few deals really perform over time. Billion Acquisition of Slack? It needed them. Without them?
And it reminded me of a stretch when over 6 months or so, I met with a series of entrepreneurs that turned down pretty attractive acquisition offers, relatively early in their lifecycle: SaaS Co. #1 Every Big Tech company has a budget for sub-$100m acquisitions. Some are for “tuck-in” acquisition to fill feature gaps.
have done $1B+ acquisitions before their IPO. Get bought for stock early by Coinbase or Snowflake, sometimes the value can grow dramatically after the acquisition. And start-ups have gotten bigger. So they can pay more. Stripe, Databricks, etc. Sometimes, it gives you a chance to double down.
There really aren’t that many good acquisitions done a year. The best way to maximize the odds a decent ROI acquisition is feasible is to (x) raise the least amount of capital necessary to still (y) build a category winner, or at least, a potential category winner. And start early. That’s a pretty nuanced play.
This report aims to highlight the current state of B2B database and contact acquisition strategies and organizations’ goals to leverage data to fuel their go-to-market strategies in 2020 and beyond. As buyer expectations to receive this type of relevant engagement continues to heighten, database management strategies are of high importance.
Zendesk & Anaplan announced their acquisitions within days of each other & their multiples bound the outer edges of the range: 5.1x & 13.4x. The more free cash the company produces, the lower the acquisition multiple. Curiously, free-cash flow margin correlates to forward-revenue/EV multiples at -0.996.
He summarized the M&A (acquisitions) of The Top 10 Software Acquirers. This makes M&A (acquisitions) less attractive. BigTech really will struggle to make any $1B+ acquisitions for real if antitrust somewhere will block it, like Figma and Adobe. But mega PE firms Thoma Bravo, Vista, etc. The bar to IPO sure seems high.
Dear SaaStr: We’ve Gotten a Good But Not Great Acquisition Offer. The post Dear SaaStr: We’ve Gotten a Good But Not Great Acquisition Offer. Should I Take It? Should you sell your startup if you get a good M&A offer? I’ve seen a second good one just never come again, or come too late, too many times.
But it also viscerally shows how much the bar has changed for a $10B PE acquisition in SaaS in just a few months. The post Zendesk and Anaplan: A Tale of Two Very Similar, And Very Different, $10B SaaS Acquisitions appeared first on SaaStr. (And yes, Zendesk also said No to another PE offer months prior at a much higher price).
As the eyes and ears of an organization, Customer Success can drive acquisition, expansion, and retention. But without a clear understanding of a product’s capability, or the value it creates for customers, churn is unavoidable.
Dear SaaStr: Do Shares Get “Forward Vested in an Acquisition? One way or another, any acceleration is often (but certainly not always) re-negotiated in acquisitions, especially of earliest-stage companies. I.e., if you get fired after an acquisition, all your stock then accelerates vesting? But part of it.
Similarly, acquisitions don’t cost that much, especially if they are done with cash by a BigCo with a ton of cash (stock deals without buybacks lead to dilution, and thus, lower earnings). A $1B acquisition sounds like a lot, and it is. So no BigCo wants to overpay for acquisitions or corporate VC investments.
Dear SaaStr: What Do Founders Need to Know to Navigate a Merger/Acquisition? For most of us, especially if the acquisition is after years of doing it “our way” — that can be very frustrating. My #1 tip: Get Zen. Once you sell it, it is not yours anymore. And both your upside and your downside are now capped. You will have a boss.
In the latest billion+ acquisition, Xero just acquired Israeli-founded, NYC-based Melio for $2.5B The deal shows acquirers are hungry for revenue acceleration—Xero expects to more than double group revenue by 2028 with this acquisition. This B2B2B model generated 35% of revenue while dramatically reducing customer acquisition costs.
In this webinar, product-led growth pioneer Wes Bush will examine what the top PLG companies have in common, take an in-depth look at features and usage analytics, and explain how to use this information as the primary driver for customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. The important aspects of a great product-led strategy.
Discussed in this Episode: The power of community-led growth in driving customer acquisition and revenue. 27:34) Identifying potential acquirers and navigating the acquisition process. (33:00) 33:00) Lessons learned from the acquisition and what Cliff would do differently. (38:27) The post GTM 117: From 0 to Acquisition in 3.5
per share — a whopping 65% premium over Olo’s closing price on April 30th (the last trading day before acquisition rumors started swirling). Yesterday, Thoma Bravo announced they’re acquiring restaurant tech platform Olo (NYSE: OLO) for $2 billion in an all-cash deal. That’s $10.25 billion.
In my experience, hiring an investment bank to help you in any acquisition > $100m or so is critical. Also note: one big benefit of a PE acquisition is you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. They Ran a Crisp, Tight Process And Got 4 Offers to Buy Them. 3 Came from the Investment Bank They Hired.
This time, on Mergers & Acquisitions. My biggest take-away: there are barely more than 50 acquisitions of $50,000,000 or more, at least disclosed one, in software of U.S.-based The post There Are Only ~58 Acquisitions of $50m+ or More in Software a Year per Theory Ventures appeared first on SaaStr. By dollars, yes.
Speaker: Brian Chang, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus & Scott Schwan, Chief Product Officer of A-LIGN
While there is no clear-cut answer, many organizations will raise capital to support the cost of growth –– to help drive customer acquisition, deploy a go-to-market strategy, and scale the team. But how do you truly get to that coveted phase of continued growth and profitability?
Having been through 4 acquisitions in different forms (founder, exec, etc), it’s a lot like a venture capital investment. The acquirer may not even really figure out what they really want to do until the second year or so after the acquisition. Dear SaaStr: What Really Happens When a Company Buys Another One? The real work starts.
Similarly, acquisitions don’t cost that much, especially if they are done with cash by a BigCo with a ton of cash (stock deals without buybacks lead to dilution, and thus, lower earnings). A $1B acquisition sounds like a lot, and it is. So no BigCo wants to overpay for acquisitions or corporate VC investments.
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition? A bit more here: What are some general tips for conduct during acquisition talks? The post Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition? It is tough for most of us.
If you’re not top 2-3 in your category, prepare for acquisition, find a defensible niche, or pivot to less mature markets. Action Item: If you’re not in the top 2-3 players in your category, you need to either: Find a defensible niche Prepare for acquisition Pivot to an adjacent, less mature market 2.
Speaker: Christopher Ryan, Founder and CEO of Fusion Marketing Partners
However, Sales & Marketing departments that work together will guarantee the opposite - higher acquisition, better nurturing, and more effective sales. When these two vital parts of your company’s generating program are at odds, it guarantees only one thing at the end of the day: fewer prospects, fewer qualified leads, and fewer sales.
Dear SaaStr: How Would You Invest a 5 Million Dollar Payout From an Acquisition? The post Dear SaaStr: How Would You Invest a 5 Million Dollar Payout From an Acquisition? Bear in mind I’m not a CFA, CPA, or professional financial advisor. But I have been through it. It’s hard enough to make $5,000,000. Almost no one does.
62,526 Views: “From 2 Weeks of Runway to $1B Acquisition: The Founder Playbook with Loom’s CEO and Co-Founder” #5. 46,771 Views: “From Burn-Out to $100M in ARR with Jason Cohen, Founder of WP Engine” #6. 36,000 Views: “Twilio: The Inside Story with Jeff Lawson, CEO/Co-Founder” #9.
How to Make an Acquired Second Act Work In 2021, BILL completed its acquisition of Divvy , a Leader in Spend Management for SMBs. acquisition. René wanted everything to fit together like a glove, but it was a big acquisition, with over 7,500 customers joining. One advantage at BILL is all the bills inside of BILL.
First IPO in 1999 First acquisition for $5.3 IPO private IPO acquisition is becoming a common path. Informatica acquired for $8 Billion! But founded … in 1993! Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 27, 2025 Salesforce just agreed to finally acquire Informatica for $8 Billion after trying for some time. Focus on AI-readiness.
Here are notable $1B+ private B2B and SaaS acquisitions from 2024-2025, demonstrating how M&A dominates over IPOs: Major Private Company M&A Exits: Wiz → Google (2025): $32B Melio → Xero (2025): $2.5B For SaaS founders: Stop planning for the 83% world. It shows evolution. ” M&A Is Back!
CAC Payback : Your customer acquisition cost (CAC) payback period should ideally be under 12 months. Typically, you’ll want to show 7%-15% month-over-month growth leading up to the raise. If you’re at $1M ARR, you should have a believable path to 3x your ARR in the next 12 months. This shows you have a scalable and efficient sales model.
Kobe Conrad, Head of Growth at Rupa Health and Onleet, took the stage at SaaStr Annual to break down the five growth channels that transformed Rupa Health from a $20M seed-stage startup into a platform with hundreds of millions in equity and a 4,000% increase in user acquisition over three and a half years.
Your customer acquisition costs need to be low — in all segments of the market. But after that, sometimes you really do need to be working on a big second product. Sometimes, the market just isn’t big enough for Product #1 alone to get you to $100m+ ARR growing at a decent clip.
Billion PostgreSQL Battle for AI Agent Supremacy Brief Overview : Two data giants are making strategic moves to dominate the AI agent infrastructure market through major PostgreSQL acquisitions. This acquisition builds on previous AI investments, including the 2023 purchase of Neeva, a generative AI search startup. Databricks: The $1.25
But don’t expect it to be much more than 10%-20% of your total customer acquisition. And keep doing anything in digital that makes you back even $1 for each $1 spent. It’s a customer you probably wouldn’t already get. There are some magicians that can do better, but they really are … magiciains.
Friedman brought deep experience in developer tools and enterprise software from his time leading GitHub through its acquisition by Microsoft and subsequent growth. Corporate VC Integration : Meta’s acquisition approach suggests new models for how large corporations can access venture capital insights and talent.
Choose your funding strategy based on your market timing and competitive dynamics, not vanity metrics. Learning #5: The Age and Stage Wisdom – When to Push vs. When to Optimize The survey reveals a clear pattern that most founders misunderstand: Company age and growth rates are inversely correlated, and that’s exactly how it should be.
NRR For Segment Product 91%, Growth 0% Twilio has looked at spinning out its Segment acquisition, but for now it’s retained the product. Instead, it’s pushed to re-ignite growth. And it’s worked. The stock is up 50%+ as growth re-accelerated. #5.
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