StrongView on Thursday merged with marketing automation system Selligent. Private equity firm HGGC owns majority stakes in both companies.
As a combined company, Belgium-based Selligent and Redwood City, Calif.-based StrongView will employ about 350 people. The goal is to expand products and services internationally, said Selligent co-founder and CEO André Lejeune. Lejeune will serve as CEO of the combined organization.
StrongView CEO Bill Wagner will become an operating partner at HGGC. Lejeune said he does not foresee any layoffs or overlap between the two companies, though there’s some crossover in financial roles.
“In the short term, the plan is to continue servicing clients on all platforms. We are going to use the name StrongView and operate it as a Selligent company for some time,” he told AdExchanger.
In the long-term, the entity could ultimately phase out StrongView branding once integration of teams and product is finalized.
When HGGC took a majority stake in StrongView, all parties involved were weighing merger opportunities since the “synergies were obvious,” Lejeune said.
Each company filled holes in the other’s stack and client categories. StrongView focused more on enterprise clients while Selligent zeroed in on the mid-market.
“The first priority was to have a global presence with StrongView,” Lejeune said. “On top of that, it adds great IT assets, such as the email platform and multichannel content.”
Although he declined to talk specifically about long-term growth plans, he said Selligent lacks certain modules and functions, which might be fulfilled through future acquisitions. Some of those key areas are machine learning and additional data assets, along with more complex tools to bridge the gap between CRM and digital marketing.
“There’s always an evolution in the market,” said Rebecca Lieb, an independent analyst and longtime Altimeter Group analyst. “Marketing automation was ascendant, and now it’s consolidating and normalizing.”
She added that email point solutions have evolved into stacks with greater execution capabilities. This evolution has led to acquisitions like Salesforce buying ExactTarget, Adobe’s purchase of Neolane and Oracle with Responsys and Eloqua.
“In addition to email, essential for any marketing automation system is content,” she added. “Email is still there and foundational, but it’s viewed as part of a broader strategy and not as a standalone marketing channel. It’s not an island anymore.”
