A complicated but calculated series of mergers and acquisitions resulted today in a significant shakeup in the post-sales service market, as pioneer software providers Servigistics and Click Commerce are now a single entity operating under the Servigistics name.
Behind the maneuvering is the private equity firm Marlin Capital, which announced in mid-May that it had bought three business divisions of Click Commerce. Marlin quickly nested Click’s Contract Service and Management unit within Emptoris, another Marlin property. Marlin then stealthily acquired Servigistics, and today announced that it had joined the service pioneer with Click’s Service Networks Solutions business, forming a technology provider covering “all aspects of the post-sale service process,” according to a statement. Marlin did not disclose dollar amounts for any of the transactions.
Officials who briefed Managing Automation on the deal painted the tie-up as a merger of equals and said the respective product sets are highly complementary.
“I think the expectation of [our] product folks was that there would be a lot of overlap” between the two portfolios, said Gary Brooks, Servigistics’ EVP of worldwide marketing and alliances. “But they came back at the end of the day … and we were pleased to find that overlap was much less than we anticipated.”