ADOTAS — Just over 3 weeks ago, Neolane President and CEO Stéphane Dehoche was commenting on Salesforce’s bold acquisition of ExactTarget. Now it’s Dehoche’s colleagues who are weighing in on the announcement that Adobe is acquiring Neolane for $600 million.
Much of the commentary surrounding the deal is putting it in the context of the flurry of similar recent strategic acquisitions. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, leading software companies are increasingly buying up platforms to instantly and dramatically increase the scope of their products and services. Recent major acquisitions in the space include:
- IBM/Unica ($480 million).
- Oracle/Eloqua ($871 million).
- ExactTarget/Pardot ($95 million).
- Salesforce/ExactTarget ($2.5 billion).
“In just three years – and mostly just in 2013 – almost $4.5 billion was spent acquiring marketing automation and campaign management companies, validating the burgeoning value of analytics-based customer engagement,” said Brian Suthoff, vice president of strategy and business development, Localytics. “Today, more people have phones and tablets than PCs, and the most valuable mobile engagement is happening in apps. Marketing spend will migrate to where the customers are, so keep your eye on the emerging mobile channels as next critical evolution. As we look ahead, the next critical campaign channel will be realized through this omni-present and ultra-personal channel.”
“These acquisitions by software giants signal an further consolidation of the digital marketing industry,” added Lyris CMO Alex Lustberg. “But we ask whether the resulting monolithic software suites are optimally positioned to enable true cross-channel marketing automation. How will marketers put customers, not technology, at the center of their strategy?”
Adobe’s decision to scoop up Neolane gives them a perfect record of one strategic acquisition each year for the past 5 years: Omniture (2009), Day Software (2010), Demdex (2011), Auditude (2011) and Efficient Frontier (2012).