Here are three recent deals that caught our attention.
• SailPoint Technologies Holding Inc. (NYSE: SAIL), the Austin-based public company that makes identity security software that can help protect other businesses’ networks, announced Feb. 22 its acquisition of Intello. Based in New York City, Intello makes tools to manage and secure SaaS applications. SailPoint framed that deal as a way to help customers manage their SaaS exposure — which seems like a useful thing right now with so many of us using programs from Slack to Trello to Zoom to get remote work done. Financial terms were not disclosed. SailPoint was founded in 2005 and went public in 2017. For the third quarter of 2020, it reported $94 million in revenue, a 24% increase from the same period in 2019. At the time, the company expected to bring in total revenue of $355 million to $357 million for all of 2020.
• SparkCognition Inc. has applied its industrial AI to a wide range of fields, from manufacturing to aerospace. Now the Austin-based company is expanding into financial technology with a plan to purchase AIM2, which applies artificial intelligence to financial markets. It is buying AIM2, also based in Austin, from hedge fund management company Brevan Howard and global investment bank Nomura. Financial terms were not disclosed. But the deal “will allow SparkCognition to further expand its AI capabilities into the financial services vertical and meet the needs of its customers around the world,” according to a Feb. 23 announcement. CEO Amir Husain founded SparkCognition in 2013 and the company in late 2019 raised $100 million.
• Planview Inc., the Austin-based work and portfolio management company that recently changed hands for $1.6 billion, just completed two previously announced acquisitions. It announced Feb. 23 that it completed its purchases of Seattle-based Changepoint Corp. and Clarizen Inc., which is based in San Mateo, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Both make project portfolio management software. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. However, in the announcement, Planview said buying Changepoint and Clarizen "are the company’s largest acquisitions to date and represent an important first step in Planview’s growth strategy for 2021." TPG Capital and TA Associates acquired Planview in December 2020.
