SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today announced it has acquired FutureSimple
Inc., the company behind Base. Base is known for building modern,
easy-to-use sales force automation software designed to help salespeople
do their jobs more effectively. Zendesk will invest in Base’s ongoing
market growth and product development, focusing on existing customers
and delivering products for smaller, fast-growing sales teams, expanding
to larger organizations over time.
“Base is a natural fit with Zendesk because we both share a passion for
designing beautiful products built for the people who actually use
them,” said Mikkel Svane, founder and CEO, Zendesk. “We want to do for
sales what Zendesk has already done for customer service: give
salespeople tools built around them and the customers they serve.”
Founded in 2009, Base is a modern sales solution that provides
integrated tools for communication, lead scoring, reporting and more.
The company is widely recognized by customers and industry analysts for
its leading mobile app and a user-friendly experience. Gartner has
positioned Base as a Visionary in the July 2018 Magic Quadrant for Sales
Force Automation1.
Base and Zendesk last year launched an integration between their
products, bringing together support and sales information about
customers. Among the companies using it is home loan education platform
Mortgage Coach. Its director of IT and QA support services called the
integration seamless and said it ultimately saved the team countless
hours of data duplication.
While legacy sales force automation tools are designed around rigid
management processes that discourage salespeople from using them, Base
gives sales teams the information and context they need to be effective
and successful with prospects and customers. The result is a tool that
helps salespeople work and sell more easily.
“Legacy sales tools were never built for the people actually using them.
Our core philosophy in building Base, was to create a world-class
experience for sales professionals to help them close more deals,” said
Uzi Shmilovici, founder and CEO, Base. “Just like Zendesk set out to
improve the customer experience, we set out to dramatically improve the
sales experience for 30 million sales professionals worldwide. We are
thrilled to be joining Zendesk in building the future of customer
experience software.”
Currently serving over 5,000 customers globally across industries, Base
has offices in San Francisco and Krakow, Poland. All of Base’s customers
will continue to receive support and services, and the Base team will
all be offered roles at Zendesk. Matt Price, formerly Zendesk’s senior
vice president, product portfolio, will lead a team dedicated to growing
Base across product and go-to-market.
“The Base team is perfectly suited to join Zendesk in our mission to
deliver helpful, easy to use, flexible and scalable products focused on
the customer,” said Matt Price, senior vice president and general
manager, Base. “Together we will build deeper integrations with our
products so sales and service can more easily collaborate.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. For the year ending
December 31, 2018, the acquisition is not estimated to have a
significant impact on Zendesk's revenue and is expected to be dilutive
to GAAP and Non-GAAP operating margin and earnings per share. These
estimates reflect a reduction relating to fair value adjustments to
acquired deferred revenue. Zendesk will provide further detail on the
actual and expected impact of the acquisition on its results of
operations for the year ending December 31, 2018 when it releases
financial results for the quarter ending September 30, 2018.
For more information about Zendesk and Base, check out the Zendesk blog.
About Zendesk
The best customer experiences are built with Zendesk. Zendesk’s powerful
and flexible customer service and engagement platform scales to meet the
needs of any business, from startups and small businesses to growth
companies and enterprises. Zendesk serves businesses across a multitude
of industries, with more than 125,000 paid customer accounts offering
service and support in more than 30 languages. Headquartered in San
Francisco, Zendesk operates worldwide with 15 offices in North America,
Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, among
other things, statements regarding Zendesk’s future financial
performance, its investment in existing products or business lines and
new or acquired products and business lines to grow its business, and
progress towards its long-term financial objectives. The words such as
“may,” “should,” “will,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “target,”
“project,” and similar phrases that denote future expectation or intent
regarding Zendesk’s financial results, operations, and other matters are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. You should not rely
upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.
The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements
is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors
that may cause Zendesk’s actual results, performance, or achievements to
differ materially, including (i) adverse changes in general economic or
market conditions; (ii) Zendesk’s ability to adapt its products to
changing market dynamics and customer preferences or achieve increased
market acceptance of its products; (iii) Zendesk’s ability to
effectively expand its sales capabilities, (iv) Zendesk’s ability to
effectively market and sell its products to larger enterprises, (v)
Zendesk’s expectation that the future growth rate of its revenues will
decline, and that, as its costs increase, Zendesk may not be able to
generate sufficient revenues to achieve or sustain profitability; (vi)
the market in which Zendesk operates is intensely competitive, and
Zendesk may not compete effectively; (vii) the development of the market
for software as a service business software applications; (viii)
Zendesk’s ability to introduce and market new products and to support
its products on a shared services platform; (ix) Zendesk’s ability to
integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or achieve
the expected benefits of such acquisitions, including without limitation
the acquisition of Base; (x) Zendesk’s ability to effectively manage its
growth and organizational change; (xi) breaches in Zendesk’s security
measures or unauthorized access to its customers’ data; (xii) service
interruptions or performance problems associated with Zendesk’s
technology and infrastructure; (xiii) real or perceived errors,
failures, or bugs in its products; and (xiv) Zendesk’s substantial
reliance on its customers renewing their subscriptions and purchasing
additional subscriptions.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also
subject to additional risks, uncertainties, and factors, including those
more fully described in Zendesk’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended June 30, 2018. Further information on potential risks that
could affect actual results will be included in the subsequent periodic
and current reports and other filings that Zendesk makes with the
Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including its
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending September 30, 2018.
Forward-looking statements represent Zendesk’s management’s beliefs and
assumptions only as of the date such statements are made. Zendesk
undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made
in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date
of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of
unanticipated events, except as required by law.
1 Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service
depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology
users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other
designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of
Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as
statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or
implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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Zendesk, Inc.
Analisa Schelle, 510-292-5410
press@zendesk.com
Source: Zendesk, Inc.