Over 180 Technology M&A Transactions since 1998
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Charlotte, NC; June 12, 2017 — DecisionPoint, a leader in M&A advisory services for middle-market technology companies, announced today that its client KnowledgeTree has been acquired by the SAVO Group, a leading provider of enterprise-grade sales enablement solutions.
The acquisition enables SAVO to immediately offer both a basic and advanced sales enablement solution: KnowledgeTree’s lighter-weight product complements the comprehensive classic SAVO platform, which offers the most robust prescription and enterprise segmentation available, according to Jason Liu, CEO, SAVO Group.
“The KnowledgeTree acquisition makes sense on multiple levels,” Liu said. “First, we view consolidation of sales enablement as inevitable and remain committed to leading the industry. Second, it gives us the most complete product portfolio while diversifying the customers, geographies and industries we serve. It brings predictive analytics technology leadership for use across all our products, giving us the best predictive analytics product in the space. It also expands our domain expertise from both a tech and practitioner standpoint.”
SAVO customers already include leading blue-chip brands like TransUnion, Iron Mountain, Citrix and Genesys, and high growth technology companies like Zebra Technologies and Domo. KnowledgeTree adds leading companies in the marketing and sales technology space like Pendo, Influitive, RingCentral and Zoom. More than 30 percent of KnowledgeTree customers are located overseas, including almost 15 percent in Europe, which is SAVO’s fastest-growing region.
“The fact is, the sales productivity and enablement market is ready for consolidation,” Liu said. “Consolidation reduces buyer confusion in the market and helps fuel long-term innovation and growth. SAVO is making the first – but not the last – move to roll up the space, and our financial stability has us well positioned to do so.”
SAVO’s acquisition of KnowledgeTree is a first move towards the consolidation of the sales enablement software market and was driven by SAVO’s unique view of the sales enablement market that comes from daily work with leading blue-chip and tech customers. With the acquisition, SAVO is the only company offering a complete solution in the sales enablement industry, combining SAVO’s strong enterprise customer base with the 200+ companies using KnowledgeTree worldwide.
“KnowledgeTree is experiencing record growth with our new platform,” said Sean O’Leary, CEO, KnowledgeTree. “When working with customers, we’ve seen a hunger for options across the spectrum of sales enablement solutions. Our interest in SAVO stemmed from the ability to combine best-in-class capabilities to address the entire market – and SAVO gets the value and importance of the KnowledgeTree product suite and how it works with their products to create unparalleled capabilities.”
In addition to featuring a lighter product, KnowledgeTree also brings complementary technology with its advanced predictive analytics engine that augments SAVO’s machine learning capabilities to provide smart recommendations. For example, the technology scores content and matches winning content with any lead, contact, account or case. The platform also captures and tracks analytics for content usage and sharing in selling situations to fuel predictive recommendations for next steps.
“Ultimately, our strategy is to provide a sales enablement solution that addresses the full spectrum of customer needs, whether they are looking for a lighter weight, fast on-ramp to core sales enablement – or if they need a more advanced solution that offers the type of precise micro-prescription of assets and guidance needed to support a highly complex sales enablement initiative. SAVO is actively building, buying and partnering towards this goal, with acquisitions focused on the company’s core expertise of sales enablement and productivity,” said Jeremy Schultz, EVP Strategy, SAVO.
“We enjoyed facilitating this combination of two well-known players in the sales enablement arena. Merging their capabilities will enable both sets of customers to have enhanced solutions and will create an even more competitive offering in this highly fragmented space.” said Tom Wilson, Managing Partner at DecisionPoint.
About SAVO
SAVO is the leader in the sales enablement market having pioneered the sales enablement category since its founding in 1999. SAVO provides the most insightful, prescriptive and secure sales enablement platform for global use, delivering content to sellers within the context of their selling situation. With SAVO, companies achieve their revenue initiatives by aligning their sales, marketing and operations to work together with focus on the customer and greater results in the field. For more information, please visit www.savogroup.com.
About KnowledgeTree
KnowledgeTree pushes winning content to sales teams where they work – doubling prospect engagement and tripling content use. Their software surfaces the most effective content for any sales situation – right in Salesforce.com and email. Leading companies like Western Digital, Wolters Kluwer, RingCentral, and Zoom and other leaders triple content use and radically increase prospect engagement using KnowledgeTree software. For more information, please visit www.knowledgetree.com.
About DecisionPoint
DecisionPoint is a unique leader in M&A advisory services for middle-market technology companies and their venture capital investors in the software, services, cleantech, biotech, healthcare IT and communication sectors. For additional information on DecisionPoint, visit www.DecisionPointINT.com.
For further information, contact: Tom Wilson, Managing Partner; (704) 248-1124; twilson@decisionpointint.com.