Canadian companies went on an acquisition spree this week – both buying and selling. Here’s the latest on who acquired whom.
Vidyard acquires Switch Merge
Vidyard, a Waterloo-based video marketing and analytics platform, announced the acquisition of San Francisco-based Switch Merge. The acquisition positions Vidyard to strengthen its new Personalized Video offering, which allows marketing teams to personalize videos for every viewer. This could be something as simple as featuring their name at different points throughout a video, including their company logo or even a photo from LinkedIn.
“We all know that attention spans last just a few seconds, so marketing and sales teams really have to do something special to make their message stand out,” said Michael Litt, CEO and co-founder of Vidyard. “Vidyard is dedicated to giving businesses the tools they need to engage with their audiences more effectively. We’re continuing to blaze the trail for video by integrating video personalization into our video marketing platform.”
By integrating technology from Switch Merge, which allows users to deliver personalized videos to target audiences using CRM/MAP data, Vidyard’s Personalized Video is meant to simplify the process of creating, sharing, and tracking engagement in personalized video content in an automated fashion.
MediaCore acquired by Workday
MediaCore, a cloud-based educational video platform company, announced in a blog post that it is joining Workday, a Silicon Valley-based company that provides SaaS enterprise solutions for a company’s human resources and financial management activities.
While Workday acquired MediaCore, which is based in Victoria, for an undisclosed amount, the MediaCore team say the partnership will enable them to grow their team in Victoria as they integrate their media management technology into Work day’s platform.
Silanis Technology acquired by NASDAQ traded company
Montreal-based Silanis Technology, an e-signature provider, announced that NASDAQ-traded VASCO acquired the company for an $85 million cash deal.
As VASCO is a global company dedicated to authentication, e-signatures and digital solutions for signing and managing documents, the acquisition of Silanis makes sense. Silanis’ e-SignLive platform is already used by major banks, government agencies, and credit providers. Because e-SignLive uses a single SaaS platform that can be delivered in the cloud or on-premises, the company promises the best customer experience while providing strong legal protection and regulatory compliance
“In Silanis, we have found a company with incredible technology and solutions that have emerging demand among our vast customer base,” said T. Kendall Hunt, chairman and CEO of VASCO. “Silanis’ offering is consistent with our focus on authentication and fraud prevention. We see the potential to accelerate growth in a rapidly expanding new market while still maintaining our commitment to our core offering.”
Traction On Demand Acquires BigKite Consulting
Traction On Demand, a B.C.-based consulting and software development firm, acquired Toronto-based Salesforce.com implementation partner BigKite Consulting. Under the Traction brand, the two teams will develop new use cases, solutions, and products.
“One of our greatest points of pride at Traction is that our growth to be the largest implementation partner in the Canadian marketplace, and one of the top globally, has been completely organic and not through M&A”, said Greg Malpass, Traction’s Founder and CEO. He added that meeting BigKite, which owns one of the highest CSAT scores on the Salesforce Appexchange, forced them to reconsider their strategy.
“We have much to learn from them and to share with them and we are honoured to have two incredible entrepreneurs and their team join the Traction family. This is a massive win for Tractionites, BigKiters, and our combined customers and partners.”