Zendesk to acquire SurveyMonkey parent Momentive

Zendesk mentioned it plans to acquire Momentive, the dad or mum organization of voice-of-the-client platform SurveyMonkey, for close to $four billion in stock. Zendesk mentioned the offer ought to near in the very first fifty percent of 2022.

The prepared Zendesk-Momentive merger arrives just six weeks immediately after Intuit acquired the Mailchimp e-mail advertising and marketing platform for close to $12 billion. Constellation Study analyst Liz Miller pointed out that the corporations could possibly be simply perplexed due to the fact they are named immediately after primates, perform in the client working experience room and were being acquired weeks aside. But Mailchimp focuses on e-mail advertising and marketing, when SurveyMonkey gathers voice of the client details, and it can be possible many small to medium-sized companies use equally.

The billions compensated for Momentive, a organization that would make fewer than $five hundred million once-a-year revenue, and Mailchimp, which reported $800 million once-a-year revenue in 2020, may possibly glance like overpayments to some traders. But as happened with many tech corporations in 2020, Zendesk observed its stock price tag triple from late 2018 to its 2021 peak so significantly. Zendesk’s once-a-year revenue topped $1 billion for the very first time in 2020.

“I was taken by surprise at that [$four billion] number at very first, but that is just what takes place when cash is affordable and development is the agenda,” Miller mentioned. She added that the SurveyMonkey acquisition matches in line with Zendesk’s grand prepare to make a client intelligence hub make about the actual client — as opposed to about a salesperson’s romance with a client or transactional details.

Momentive Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., begun as SurveyMonkey in 1999 in Madison, Wis., and rebranded as MomentiveAI previous June. Although Zendesk’s sales cloud has some e-mail automation abilities, Momentive delivers 345,000 shoppers as properly as its extensive-recognized advertising and marketing study resources, a written content advertising and marketing motor and client feedback technological innovation for apps and cell web-sites from the 2019 acquisitions of GetFeedback and Usabilla.

Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane
In one particular of the very first in-human being consumer conferences that went digital during the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Mikkel Svane provides the Zendesk Relater keynote from his residence.

Veering closer to advertising and marketing — but not nevertheless

Zendesk did not return requests for comment. A Zendesk trader presentation is made up of much more particulars on the Zendesk-Momentive merger — such as the firm’s vision that its technological innovation will finally be applied not only for client company, but also as a Qualtrics competitor that steps employee sentiment as properly as development towards place of work equity and inclusion.

The addition of SurveyMonkey to the Zendesk stack will assist Zendesk continue to keep up with competition these types of as Salesforce, Zoho, SugarCRM and even HubSpot, mentioned Predrag Jakovljevic, an analyst at Technological know-how Analysis Centers.

All of all those corporations begun in various parts of client working experience (Salesforce and SugarCRM from the CRM side HubSpot from advertising and marketing automation Zoho as an all-objective small company suite), but via acquisition now overlap and contend for company.

Examining sentiment in each and every conversation assists predict difficulties and [enables an group] to act beforehand and pre-empt client departures.
Predrag JakovljevicAnalyst, Technological know-how Analysis Centers

“Absolutely everyone desires to know their shoppers much better, and not only immediately after the point surveys are just one particular way of gauging client well being,” mentioned Jakovljevic, who added that Zendesk competition these types of as SupportLogic take the study one particular move even further — which may possibly suggest the route Zendesk will go with SurveyMonkey functions.

“Examining sentiment in each and every conversation assists predict difficulties and [enables an group] to act beforehand and pre-empt client departures,” Jakovljevic mentioned.

Zendesk, launched in 2007 in Copenhagen and currently based in San Francisco, created its company by developing a well-known cloud client company and IT company administration platform. In current a long time Zendesk moved into CRM and sales automation, and told traders it plans to turn into a “client intelligence organization” by 2025, going significantly over and above its unique client company cloud.

Don Fluckinger addresses company written content administration, CRM, advertising and marketing automation, e-commerce, client company and enabling systems for TechTarget.

Maria J. Danford

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