According to the PwC Deals report that published yesterday, 506 deals took place involving US tech companies in Q1. To put that in perspective, we are talking about $60 billion exchanged. And, no surprise, several of these deals were in HCM technology. These deal sizes and volume have remained up and the momentum has not slowed down in Q2. We saw some significant acquisitions this month in talent acquisition and talent management. Companies are looking for the right exit strategies and opportunities to expand their customer base and product suites.
Here are a few of the major announcements this month in case you missed them:
-Learning Technology Group (LTG) entered into an agreement to acquire talent management provide PeopleFluent last week. LTG has acquired several leading learning providers over the past few years including NetDimensions and the PeopleFluent acquisition allows it to expand into other areas of talent management as well as some robust solutions in the contingent workforce space. PeopeFluent is no stranger to acquisitions. After acquiring PeopleClick, Authoria was acquired by Bedford Funding which then rebranded as PeopleFluent. (It’s confusing to us too).
-Gemspring Capital completes its acquisition of TMP. This acquisition doesn’t come as a huge surprise. TMP’s been trying to reinvent itself for the past few years – especially through its TalentBrew product. Gemspring Capital can help to accelerate its transformation into becoming more of a tech company.
–Indeed Acquires Workopolis. The biggest indicator of a provider’s decline is when it starts to acquire companies that do exactly what they do but on a smaller scale. Indeed’s recent acquisition of Canadian job board, Workopolis is a good example (Does anyone remember some of Monster’s acquisitions of several job boards before it started to decline?). Joel Cheesman provides a great overview of the acquisition on ERE.
But how do these acquisitions impact customers? Having your provider acquired is not necessarily a bad thing but there are some things to consider. What is driving the acquisition? Is the provider trying to expand its product suite? Or is this merely an attempt to stay relevant? Customers need to ask the tough questions and start to prepare for possible changes in dedicated representatives, response time, and product updates.
