US CRM tech giant Salesforce last night announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Israeli field service software company Clicksoftware for $1.35 billion, less the value of the shares it already owns. Salesforce will pay in cash and shares and is expected to complete the deal by October 31, 2019 subject to antitrust regulatory approval in the US and Israel. Clicksoftware is owned by US private equity fund Francisco Partners.
Based in Petah Tikva, Clicksoftware has 200 employees in Israel and develops logistical management systems for customer service and technical support, sending out technicians and tracking the results. The company was founded more than 20 years ago by Moshe Benbassat, who has since left the company. The company is privately owned and therefore does not report financial results but it did report in 2016 that annual revenue was $144 million.
Francisco Partners acquired Clicksoftware in 2015 for $438 million and delisted it from Nasdaq. The private equity fund set out to enhance the value of the company and sell it within a few years. Based in San Francisco, Francisco Partners owns other Israeli companies SintecMedia and Dmatek and formerly owned Ex Libris and several months ago it sold NSO at a company value of $1 billion.
Salesforce said that ClickSoftware, "enables companies to intelligently schedule and optimize field service work. Salesforce Field Service Lightning, built on Service Cloud, harnesses the latest in dispatching, mobile workforce empowerment and IoT technologies to empower companies to connect their entire service workforce on a single, centralized platform. With the combined capabilities of Field Service Lightning and ClickSoftware, Salesforce will be positioned to lead the way to the future of field service."
Reports about talks between Salesforce and Clicksoftware were first reported in January. Last year, Salesforce acquired Israeli marketing analytics company Datorama for over $800 million.
Clicksoftware CEO Mark Cattini said, "Our mission has been clear since the beginning-to be the global leader in field service management and deliver significant value to our customers. Joining Salesforce provides a tremendous opportunity to accelerate this vision. As a part of Salesforce, we will be able to innovate faster, enabling our joint customers to deliver even better experiences to their customers. This is an exciting milestone, and I look forward to what we’ll deliver to our respective customers as one company after close."
Salesforce EVP and GM Service Cloud Bill Patterson said, "Delivering exceptional field service is an increasingly important priority for companies across industries with more than 70 percent of customer service leaders making significant investments to transform their mobile workforce. Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers. We are thrilled to welcome the ClickSoftware team to Salesforce."
Salesforce was represented in Israel by Advs. Barry Levenfeld, Ben Sandler, Eran Lempert, Ira Evental and others from Yigal Arnon & Co., and by Shearman & Sterling in the US.
Previously Yigal Arnon & Co. represented Intel in its purchase of Mobileye ($15.3B) and Nvidia in its purchase of Mellanox ($6.9B)
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 8, 2019
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