Dive Brief:
- Marketo, one of the last of the large enterprise-class marketing automation companies available, has sold for $1.79 billion in a cash deal, TechCrunch reports.
- Vista Equity Partners bought the martech firm in a deal that will provide Marketo shareholders with a 64% premium on its May 9 closing price. Marketo went public in 2013.
- After competitors such as Eloqua, Silverpop, Pardot and ExactTarget began being snapped up by tech giants like Oracle and IBM over the last several years, Marketo has long been a topic of industry speculation with Microsoft and SAP seen as the most likely sources of an acquisition deal.
Dive Insight:
As recently as May, rumors were swirling about a possible acquisition deal with Bloomberg reporting that the marketing automation giant was in talks with Morgan Stanley on a possible sale. Probably the only real surprise in the announcement was Marketo selling to a private equity company rather than a tech company looking to plug Marketo’s martech solution into a larger software suite.
“After careful consideration and deliberation, our Board of Directors unanimously concluded that the sale of Marketo to Vista Equity Partners was in the best interest of Marketo and its shareholders,” said Phil Fernandez, chairman and CEO of Marketo, in a statement. “The acquisition will allow Marketo to continue to focus on customer success and to remain the independent category leader, continuing to set the agenda for product innovation and thought leadership for the entire digital marketing industry.”
Fernandez co-founded Marketo in 2006 with a history of creating, and selling, tech companies, so in a way Marketo being among the last of the big companies to be acquired was also a surprise. Industry players will be keeping an eye to see if the move keeps the martech firm’s leadership in place, or if it is a stepping stone to a deal with one of the tech giants.