As the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) “gold-rush” intensifies, industry consolidation is inevitable. The latest example of this consolidation process is today’s announcement by NetSuite that it intends to acquire OpenAir.

This announcement not only reaffirms the SaaS industry consolidation trend, but it also is the latest example of a company profiled by THINKstrategies being acquired shortly thereafter. Other examples include,

Vtrenz which was acquired by Silverpop
Everdream was acquired by Dell
AimNet was acquired by Cognizant
Corio was acquired by IBM

(Contact me if you’d like a copy of our Strategic Thinking profiles on these companies.)

I had the privilege of talking with Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite, and Morris Panner, the CEO of OpenAir, moments before today’s announcement was made public. They indicated that the acquisition was based on a trend which THINKstrategies has seen coming for a few months now.

Prospective SaaS users are not only seeking … Read More »

Last week, NetSuite announced that it was finally ready to enter the public market with an Initial Public Offering (IPO), and this week two other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) oriented players found a private exit via acquisitions.

The NetSuite acquisition had been highly anticipated and is another indication of the growing support of the SaaS model within the investment community. NetSuite’s S-1 shows that the company is experiencing strong growth while also reducing the proportion of its revenues being spent on software development, sales and marketing. Although NetSuite isn’t a rocket-ship like Salesforce.com, it has established a broad enough customer base and is gaining sufficient momentum to disprove any lingering misconceptions that SaaS can’t satisfy businesses’ back-office or financial management needs.

A successful IPO by NetSuite, combined with growing receptivity to IPOs in general within the investment community, will widen the door for other … Read More »