Articles

Acquisition Article

<hr /> Well, it happened. I’ve been predicting a move like this for a while, although I thought it might be an up-and-comer like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.conductor.com/">Conductor</a> or even a niche startup like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://otterly.ai/">Otterly.ai</a> elsewhere in the stack.  But then again, it’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a>. And when they go, they go big.And that’s what they’re doing with the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/11/adobe-to-acquire-semrush">acquisition of Semrush,</a> a stalwart of modern martech and one of the “must-have” tools for search engine optimization over the last decade. Adobe just announced that it will purchase Semrush for the tidy sum of $1.9 billion in an all-cash transaction for $12 per share.The deal is said to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. It should be “smoother” sailing, despite the pothole in the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/whats-under-the-fig-leaf-the-naked-truth-about-the-figma-ipo-and-the-markets-appetite-for-tech">rearview that is Figma</a>. Semrush is, comparatively, a tame acquisition that’s almost 20 times less breathtaking than that debacle. No doubt, Adobe is posturing to expand its leadership in the realm of marketing intelligence and the concentration on Generative Search Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). As competitors like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely</a> position themselves as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/welcome-to-the-geo-ready-cms-optimizely-adds-new-features-to-enhance-ai-powered-search">“GEO-ready” platforms</a>, the race is on to give brands more comprehensive tools that address the shift towards AI search discovery.Despite this focus on marketing-centric tools that address the pressures of AI, Adobe lives beyond a single category like DXP or CMP, evolving its value to that of customer experience orchestration in the agentic AI era – and pointing its collective powers at the complete content supply chain, customer engagement, and brand visibility.It's doing all of this with its suite of industry-leading products like the ubiquitous <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe Experience Manager (AEM),</a> its unified <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/adobe-analytics.html">Adobe Analytics</a> suite, and the recently launched <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/brand-concierge.html">Adobe Brand Concierge</a> for creating interactive, AI-powered conversational journeys.Adding Semrush to this puzzle brings the picture into sharp relief, giving marketers a holistic view of how their brands appear across the new frontier of LLMs, as well as owned channels, legacy search, and the broader web. It also gives them more control over managing their visibility across the entire ecosystem. “Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/achakravarthy/">Anil Chakravarthy,</a> president of Adobe’s Digital Experience Business. “With Semrush, we’re unlocking GEO for marketers as a new growth channel alongside their SEO, driving more visibility, customer engagement and conversions across the ecosystem.”<h3 id="cmos-need-better-tools-to-master-ai-search">CMOs need better tools to master AI search</h3>The Chief Marketing Officer’s job has always been a little cursed. Often a revolving door of talent that lives and dies by the numbers, it has recently grown a bigger backbone when it comes to strategic performance. What's at stake? Pretty much everything. Enterprises are relying on marketing to deliver the goods at a breakneck pace. Meanwhile, CMOs are expected to make sense out of metric tons of data from a wide range of sources and tools – and make actionable decisions that drive growth. It's a tough racket, and forget the fact that a CMO's marketing team is also being challenged by cognitive overload. While brand equity and visibility are key, CMOs face a reckoning with results. According to a report from NIQ, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251118947080/en/CMOs-Face-a-Reputation-and-Results-Reckoning-According-to-NIQs-2026-Outlook">84% of CMOs now prioritize ROI</a> as their primary metric for budget allocation, signaling pressure to drive short-term conversion over long-term brand growth.And driving those conversions is search. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">Google</a> still crushes AI answer engines like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chatgpt.com/">ChatGPT</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.perplexity.ai/">Perplexity</a>, maintaining roughly 90% of the global search market share. Google’s traffic has continued to increase into 2025 due in part to its new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://gemini.google/overview/">Gemini-powered AI Overviews</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://search.google/ways-to-search/ai-mode/">AI Mode</a> features.But the landscape is starting to shift. ChatGPT’s adoption has been downright mindboggling, reaching 100 million users within two months of launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer app ever. By late 2024, it was reportedly logging around 1 billion interactions per day. By one account, it could <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ttms.com/llm-powered-search-vs-traditional-search-2025-2030-forecast/">surpass Google by 2028,</a> and new data from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://business.adobe.com/blog/adi-october-2025-holiday-shopping-actuals">Adobe Analytics</a> showed that traffic from generative AI sources to U.S. retail sites increased by 1,200% year-over-year in October.As consumers increasingly turn to answer engines for information, recommendations, and purchase decisions, CMOs need tools that address generative AI platforms so they can enhance their visibility across these new customer interfaces and drive conversions. Organizations that invest in GEO – alongside their SEO capabilities – are poised to keep their brands well-represented, more easily discovered, and trusted across owned and earned channels.<h3 id="a-legacy-of-seo-innovation-with-a-new-focus-on-geo">A legacy of SEO innovation with a new focus on GEO</h3>Semrush is the gold standard in SEO. It provides a deep cache of rich information, from competitive insights to keyword research to campaign planning. It’s also incredibly intuitive and accessible, with many third-party platforms surfacing Semrush data in their analytics dashboards. For more than ten years, Semrush has armed marketers with “traditional” search engine optimization capabilities. But its recent gains in the development of GEO capabilities – specifically with its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.semrush.com/ai-seo/">AI Visibility Toolkit</a> – are helping brands enhance visibility, expand audience reach, and remain discoverable in AI search. The good news for marketers is that the core principles of SEO also apply to GEO. Translation: They work together, and you don’t need to abandon your SEO strategy to build your presence across the AI engines. AI assistants provide helpful and (hopefully) accurate information to users, and they pull that information from the same internet your SEO-focused content lives on. Generally speaking, the more your brand is associated with the topics you want to focus on, the more likely it is to be referenced in an AI-generated answer.The combination of Adobe and Semrush could be a catalyst for even greater insight across both the SEO and GEO channels. Marketers need both, and Adobe's consolidation will likely benefit both competencies. “Adobe is an industry leader in helping marketers create personalized customer experiences at scale. With the advent of LLMs and AI-driven search, brands need to understand where and how their customers are engaging in these new channels,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamrwagner/">Bill Wagner,</a> chief executive officer of Semrush. “This combination provides marketers more insights and capabilities to increase their discoverability across today’s evolving digital landscape.”From a performance standpoint, Semrush has been bringing the rain. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://increv.co/academy/semrush-users/">As of last year,</a> it boasted nearly 1.2 million users with annual revenue of over $300 million. In its most recent quarter, it drove 33% year-over-year ARR growth in its enterprise customer segment, earning the trust of industry leaders like Amazon, JPMorganChase, and TikTok.It’s worth noting that Semrush does have a large cohort of free-tier users (by one estimate, it represents as much as 90% of its base). This speaks to the company’s commitment to deliver value while building a strong SaaS pipeline to future paid users. Will Adobe maintain that? Only time will tell, but it’s a great example of a “Big Give” that works.<h3 id="the-verdict">The verdict</h3>GEO is becoming a crucial objective for brands and their marketing teams. This is a non-negotiable requirement of their modern tooling, and will inform the decision-making as they assess technologies to light these dark alleyways in their marketing intelligence.  Semrush and its peers might be innovating on the edge, but we’re still in catch-up mode. Every day could be another <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://greylock.com/greymatter/the-deepseek-moment/">DeepSeek moment</a> of change, threatening to send practitioners back into a well of shadows when it comes to LLM behaviors. As such, having the scale and skunkworks that Adobe provides could inject more value into the GEO roadmap, giving enterprises greater confidence around the futureproofing.This isn't “guesttimation” for me. I’ve personally relied on Semrush for years to analyze competitors, test longtail keywords, identify and root out toxic backlinks, and more. It’s a fantastic tool, and that’s why I think this is a smart move. Semrush is a solid, long-standing brand that’s built deep trust with its community, and that brand loyalty could benefit the transition to Adobe – a shift that hasn’t always been easy on cultures or communities.Is it worth the bucks? As far as the tendered deal is concerned, the math around multiples appears sound and reflects what we’re seeing elsewhere (early to say if it’s a steal or a deal). While the numbers aren’t as mammoth, 2025 has been a solid year for M&amp;A, tracking a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/global-ma-activity-up-10-first-nine-months-2025-study-shows-2025-10-28/">10% increase in overall activity</a> in the first nine months of the year. A lot of that has been led by tech and specifically AI-related acquisitions, but the martech realm has been active, starting with the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contentstack-just-acquired-lytics-a-real-time-customer-data-platform-heres-why-it-matters">purchase of the Lytics CDP</a> by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentstack">Contentstack</a> in January of this year.Competitive pressure is a clear driver. As players like Optimizely and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore</a> expand their agentic AI features and evolve what a complete martech stack looks like, GEO capabilities are becoming front and center. And as the research indicates, conversions are going to be the key metric for ROI – and AI search is becoming a bigger piece of the integrated pie. What’s next? A lot. With the introduction of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://openai.com/index/buy-it-in-chatgpt/">ChatGPT’s Agentic Commerce Protocol,</a> we’re now seeing the potential for more retail transactions shifting to LLMs – creating even greater urgency for brands to elevate their presence across these channels. As we look ahead to the agent-to-agent frontier powered by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro">MCP,</a> it’s fair to predict that these buying motions will be faster and increasingly automated.Look, there’s more here than just broadening the scope of Adobe’s marketing intelligence. It’s a signal that the race is on to shape the customer experience within the generative AI horizon – and giving marketers the best tools to meet the moment.Enterprises want composable solutions that offer adjacent integrations but include purpose-built features to help them address the immediate challenges of the AI era. And they can’t wait for tomorrow – they have to act today. That’s what Adobe is delivering: the promise of speed and scale for an agentic world.Can you feel the rush? <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761136749603.png" /><h4 id="live-webinar:-can-we-ever-get-composable-without-complexity?"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/webinar-cmscritic">Live Webinar: Can We Ever Get Composable Without Complexity?</a></h4>November 20, 2025 – 6 PM (CET) / 5 PM (GMT) / 12 PM (EST)Composable architecture promised to simplify digital experience creation by giving organizations the flexibility to combine the technologies that met their needs. But for many enterprises, it’s done the opposite, which has led to complex integrations, spiraling costs, and what some are now referring to as composable regret. In this live conversation, Umbraco CEO Mats Persson joins Matt Garrepy, Chief Content Officer at CMS Critic, for a candid exploration of what went wrong in the first wave of composable and what needs to change. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/webinar-cmscritic">Register for the webinar.</a> <img style="width:29.08%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761594434824.png" /><h4 id="typo3-conference-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/">TYPO3 Conference 2025</a></h4>November 25–27, 2025 – Düsseldorf, GermanyT3CON is the premier annual event for web professionals, developers, marketers, and decision-makers. Much more than just a TYPO3-focused conference, T3CON spotlights the latest trends, innovations, and leaders shaping the future of content management, covering everything from grassroots initiatives to new technologies, strategies, and success stories. The event is designed to empower businesses and organizations with the knowledge and tools they need to thrive in the evolving digital landscape. The conference culminates in an awards ceremony celebrating the best TYPO3 projects across various industries. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/">Get your ticket.</a> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Feel the GEO Rush: Adobe to Acquire Semrush for $1.9B to Enhance AI Search

matt-garrepy

Contentstack just acquired Lytics, a real-time customer data platform. Here’s why it matters

<hr /> I got the Salesforce Blues… Even Slack can't pick me up… I got the Salesforce Blues… Is Informatica outta luck?Oh, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce</a>. Even legendary blues disciple <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson">Robert Johnson</a> couldn’t pen a sadder tune about these troubled waters. What did you ever do to deserve this reaction?Before we discuss any “deals with the devil” or take riders to Rosedale, let’s review what we know (and don’t know). Things started brewing last Friday when the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/salesforce-in-advanced-talks-to-buy-informatica-ba9ec09c?mod=tech_lead_pos3">Wall Street Journal</a> first reported that the CRM giant was in early talks to buy <a target="_blank" href="https://www.informatica.com/">Informatica</a>, a leader in the data management software space. For context: Informatica’s tools provide advanced data quality and integration capabilities, helping businesses enhance the value of their data for business, IT, marketing, and commerce applications. This includes stuff like APIs, cloud modernization, Customer 360 solutions, and a whole lot more.On Monday, when word hit the street, <a target="_blank" href="https://qz.com/salesforce-informatica-deal-11-billion-1851411069">Salesforce stock tumbled 7.3%</a>. Informatica, likewise, was off by 6.5%. Salesforce recovered a bit today, but the axe fell deep – and swiftly. But it's too early to draw conclusions. It's no secret that Salesforce has been expanding and diversifying its ecosystem. When I reflected last week on <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/is-google-adding-the-letters-crm-to-its-alphabet-soup-ask-hubspot">Google’s dalliance with buying HubSpot</a>, I also noted how Salesforce is entangled in the gravitational influence of the leading cloud providers – where <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/aws">AWS</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-azure">Microsoft</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">GCP</a> present a celestial three-body problem.Over the years, Salesforce has evolved CRM through its own sales lens, adding tools like marketing automation, commerce, CMS, analytics, and a whole host of technologies that make its cloud more attractive and “sticky” to enterprises. Central to it all is data, the currency of business, and an area that’s being threatened by the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2024/01/16/google-commits-to-third-party-cookies-deprecation-in-2024/?sh=a8d8e14245af">deprecation of cookies</a> and an evolving consumer privacy landscape. When it comes to an acquisition of this scale (at $38.48 a share, the Informatica price tag would be in the billions) there are a lot of underlying forces at play. But what presumably makes this worth all the “B’s” to Salesforce is the exploding value of AI. This is why the hunt for platforms like Informatica could be key to accelerating the injection of AI-powered capabilities into the mix. Both Salesforce and Informatica have been charging up their existing products with artificial intelligence for quite some time but really ramping up since the introduction of <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">Open AI</a> and LLMs. Earlier this year, Salesforce released <a target="_blank" href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2024/02/27/einstein-copilot-news/">Einstein Copilot</a>, a generative conversational AI assistant for its CRM that delivers more trusted responses trained on your company’s data. Around this time last year, Informatica also released its AI-powered <a target="_blank" href="https://www.informatica.com/about-us/news/news-releases/2023/05/20230509-informatica-expands-its-intelligent-data-management-cloud-with-innovations-led-by-claire-gpt-industrys-first-generative-ai-powered-data-management-platform.html">Intelligent Data Management Cloud</a>, which included its novel <a target="_blank" href="https://www.informatica.com/about-us/claire.html">CLAIRE GPT</a> – providing the industry’s first generative AI solution within a data management platform. And so here we are, waiting to see if Salesforce starts Travis-picking with another big gamble. The talks are merely at the advanced stage, but they could represent a major move for both companies and send ripples across the CRM and cloud landscape.  <h3 id="so-why-are-investors-singin’-the-blues?-">So why are investors singin’ the blues? </h3>Play it again, Sam…It’s a song as old as time, because Salesforce has been around forever – and given its track record with its most recent acquisitions, it’s clear that the street is feeling a bit uneasy about another big-ticket purchase that doesn’t pay off in big dividends. Just to jog your memory: when Salesforce touted its breathtaking $28 billion acquisition of Slack in 2020, CEO Mark Benioff proclaimed it was a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-slacks-marriage-to-salesforce-crumbled">“match made in heaven.”</a> It didn’t take long for things to sour – from a visible rift between Benioff and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, to real skepticism that sales could be increased by bundling and integrating Slack with other products.To be clear, there are multiple Slack integrations with Salesforce, from basic connectors for admins to Service Cloud and Tableau. You can also build custom notifications, which is pretty handy. OK, so it works. But by all measures, it hasn’t been a windfall. And paying 26 times Slack’s future revenue was just one painful reality playing out over the last two years. The other was fighting the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/is-google-adding-the-letters-crm-to-its-alphabet-soup-ask-hubspot">growing “Cloud War” with Microsoft</a>, its former rival for Slack and persona non grata around Salesforce HQ. As competition betwixt Dynamics 365 and other downstream systems ensued, Salesforce was feeling pressure to innovate, scale, and make up ground for a colossal misstep. And things are getting precarious from an accountability perspective. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/salesforce-is-advanced-talks-buy-informatica-wsj-reports-2024-04-13/">According to Reuters</a>, Salesforce has been under the gun since early last year, when a pod of activist investors – including ValueAct Capital and Elliott Management – started raising flags around the company’s strategy. This included a quest for changes in management, but it might also be the fire that lit leadership into action around the company's next strategic venture.Buying Informatica at the proposed price will make this the biggest acquisition for Salesforce since the Slack debacle. Not to say that all previous purchases have missed the mark. <a target="_blank" href="https://qz.com/salesforce-informatica-deal-11-billion-1851411069">According to Quartz</a>, Salesforce has purchased over 70 companies since 2006. Some of those must have turned out to be winners, right? Right?Well, that’s exactly what investors are weighing. Even though 2023 was a year of austerity for the CRM king’s unabated “expansion by acquisition,” some major purchases prior to Slack are still rattling the market’s rib cage. In 2019, it went hog-wild with Tableau – spending <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-05/salesforce-crm-guts-tableau-after-spending-15-7-billion-in-2019-deal">$15.7 billion</a> for the analytics visualization platform. A year earlier, it dropped <a target="_blank" href="https://groovetechnology.com/blog/why-did-salesforce-acquire-mulesoft/">$6.5 billion</a> for Mulesoft – arguably the leading API development and integration platform. On the surface, these purchases seemed to serve ostensibly ambitious goals: Salesforce wanted to enrich customer data and expand its marketplace with API-powered interoperability. But just as with Slack, Salesforce gutted both platforms after the deals were closed, laying off sizeable portions of their respective teams. With Tableau, a major reorg last year signaled that the acquisition might not be living up to its expectations. Maybe not the best way to handle your multi-billion-dollar purchases. But that’s another song on the record. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>As the tale goes, Robert Johnson <a target="_blank" href="https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/robert-johnson#:~:text=Legend%20has%20it%20that%20Robert,the%20first%20ever%20rock%20star.">sold his soul</a> to the devil at a crossroads in Cleveland, Mississippi in exchange for a mastery of the guitar. Regardless of what you believe, his talent was unrivaled at the time – and he might have been the first rock star ever. Like the blues legend, Salesforce was unquestionably the first rock star of CRM. Sure, it was flanked by contemporary pioneers like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.goldmine.com/">Goldmine</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.maximizer.com/">Maximizer</a>, but it was Mark Benioff’s vision of “The End of Software” that really blew people’s minds and established a revolutionary foothold for the category. And it was rock 'n roll all the way to the top.It’s true what they say: some stars burn bright and fade into obscurity. That’s not the case here, but market-leading entities like Salesforce do lose their luster as innovators and disruptors when the accouterments of success begin to weigh things down. There’s no doubt that Salesforce has made some, shall we say, miscalculations when feeding its voracious M&amp;A appetite. That might seem obvious on the frontend relative to the inflated price tag for Slack. But the real misstep is the mismanagement of the potential. Reorgs and layoffs aside, it seems that no one had a real plan for what to do after it won the race.Still, Salesforce got to its Gleaming Tower on the Bay because it has continued to nurture its core business – and I’m certain it has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Case in point: aligning with AWS to build a beachhead against Microsoft via its Marketplace. The Informatica acquisition could also be more tacitly aligned with Salesforce, building on market longevity and proven enterprise relationships. Like Salesforce, Informatica’s no spring chicken – it was founded in 1993, six years before Benioff left Oracle to build his new kingdom.Also on the plus side: it looks like a good buy from a revenue and market share perspective. Informatica’s stock has been performing well since the launch of its AI features, up 43% this year. With 5,000 active customers and 6,000 employees, it could present a more profitable catch – as long as the multipliers hold steady.At the end of the day, the cloud plays big in any decision, for reasons already mentioned (vis-à-vis the "Cloud Wars”). The next big hurdle in cloud adoption and management is optimization, fueled by actionable data insights. If Salesforce can complement its core services with greater access to data innovation and cloud modernization services – coupled with even greater API integration and data quality capabilities – it might have a real winner on its hands.And of course, there’s AI. Informatica’s CLAIRE GPT leverages unified metadata intelligence to enhance data discovery up to 100x faster and unlock new levels of productivity. Automation is becoming increasingly important as brands amass huge amounts of data across billions of transactions and data integration jobs. This is work humans can’t do – and its CRM ecosystem could certainly benefit from. After a long drought of M&amp;A activity, 2024 is looking to be a year of potentially epic dealmaking. This move by Salesforce is a clear signal that sentiment is improving. That said, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan <a target="_blank" href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-ceo-dimon-says-market-181040250.html">maintains caution</a> as the outlook is compounded by a confluence of outside factors – namely a Presidential election in the U.S. and continued global conflicts that could impact supply chains. In other words, we just don’t know. It’s hard to weigh in fully on speculation, but with so much percolating across the tech sector, it’s important to keep our eyes on what’s really happening. Salesforce is a critical part of almost every enterprise stack, and a key one for CMS and DXP platforms (heck, Salesforce has shown up as a DXP for Gartner). Improving data management could be a pro for customers on multiple levels. Of course, the Blues can be unpredictable – and sometimes, you don’t start singin' 'til the deal is done. Let’s hope the devil isn’t involved.   <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

The Salesforce Blues? Why investors are singing a sad song about a deal to buy Informatica 

The holidays call for a lot of cooking – and one essential ingredient is butter. 
That was also the case for <a href="https://www.tiugotech.com/" target="_blank">Tiugo Technologies,</a> an affiliate of leading M&amp;A firm <a href="https://www.psgequity.com/" target="_blank">PSG Equity</a> that specializes in early-stage mid-market technology companies. Tiugo recently announced the acquisition of Detroit-based <a href="https://buttercms.com/" target="_blank">ButterCMS</a>, welcoming the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless platform</a> to its family of brands.
This marks the second acquisition for Tiugo in 2022. In addition to its core consultancy, the company appears to be building an API-first portfolio of developer platforms – with a keen focus on content creation and digital collaboration. 
“We’re thrilled to welcome Butter to the Tiugo organization,” said Mark Hatton, PSG Senior Advisor and CEO of Tiugo. “We believe there is a substantial market for tools that help developers accelerate digital innovation. Our goal is for Tiugo to cultivate a suite of market-leading developer platforms focused on content creation and digital collaboration to help them scale successfully and effectively. Butter delivers enterprise-grade headless CMS capabilities to our launchpad, and we’re looking forward to expanding our offerings through future impactful acquisitions.”
<h2>Collaboration brings new opportunities for ButterCMS</h2>
ButterCMS is a provider of headless, API-first content management solutions. Founded in 2017, the platform helps customers draft, manage, review and publish dynamic marketing content to websites and online apps.
“As the digital revolution accelerates, ensuring companies have easy, efficient ways to publish and manage digital content across websites, apps, and digital experiences is mission-critical,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lumetta/" target="_blank">Jake Lumetta</a>, founder and CEO of ButterCMS. “With this in mind, we’ve developed our product ecosystem to help address these specific needs, and through our continued product innovation, we’re committed to providing our diverse, digital-forward customer base with the solutions they require. We’re eager to continue to serve our customers in even more powerful ways in collaboration with Tiugo and with the support of PSG.”
CMS Critic had the opportunity to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-content-localization-capabilities-from-buttercms-qa-with-ceo-jake-lumetta/">speak with Jake Lumetta</a> in 2021. In the Q&amp;A, he outlined growth opportunities he saw for ButterCMS, as well as product upgrades and expansions that would help Butter stand out in the CMS marketplace.
<h2>Tiugo expansion continues</h2>
Tiugo Technologies, a PSG portfolio company, also <a href="https://www.tiugotech.com/news/tiugo-technologies-cksource-acquisition" target="_blank">acquired CKSource</a> in May 2022.
“We’re excited to support Tiugo as it continues to broaden its capabilities through acquisitions of companies like Butter with an aim to deliver a comprehensive set of platforms for the software developer community,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-ferrari-59877425/" target="_blank">Marco Ferrari</a>, Managing Director at PSG.
Tiugo did not disclose any of the acquisition's financial details for ButterCMS. That said, the company does expect to acquire additional software brands in 2023.
<h2>About ButterCMS  </h2>
Founded in 2017, ButterCMS is a leading provider of headless CMS solutions for digitally native enterprises and SMBs. Its portfolio includes hundreds of world-recognized brands. ButterCMS makes it simple and easy to draft, manage, review and publish dynamic marketing content to websites, online apps and digital experiences. To learn more about ButterCMS, visit <a href="http://www.buttercms.com/" target="_blank">www.buttercms.com</a>   
<h2>About Tiugo Technologies and PSG Equity   </h2>
Tiugo Technologies is assembling a portfolio of API-first, market-leading developer platforms focused on content creation and digital collaboration to help them accelerate growth, increase operating efficiency and fund add-on acquisitions. Our family of companies work together with an aim to succeed in the competitive developer platform market. Tiugo companies collaborate to offer holistic, differentiated solutions that grow faster, operate more efficiently and create more value together than they can alone. Tiugo is headquartered in Boston. To learn more about Tiugo, visit<a href="https://www.tiugotech.com/" target="_blank"> www.tiugotech.com</a>.    
PSG is a growth equity firm that partners with software and technology-enabled services companies to help them navigate transformational growth, capitalize on strategic opportunities and build strong teams. Having backed more than 115 companies and facilitated over 420 add-on acquisitions, PSG brings extensive investment experience, deep expertise in software and technology, and a firm commitment to collaborating with management teams. Founded in 2014, PSG operates out of offices in Boston, Kansas City, London, Paris, Madrid and Tel-Aviv. To learn more about PSG, visit<a href="http://www.psgequity.com/" target="_blank"> www.psgequity.com</a>. 
 
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<h2>Join CMS Industry Leaders, Digital Agencies, and Users at CMS Kickoff 2023</h2>
January 17-18 in St. Petersburg, FL
Don't miss the only conference tailored for everyone working with content management systems, from beginners to experts! Featuring two packed days with a carefully curated mixture of talks, workshops, activities, world-class facilitators, thought provokers, speakers, and session leads. Mingle with CMS experts, system integrators, and users from around the globe at this exclusive event in beautiful St. Petersburg. 
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Tiugo Technologies Enhances its Portfolio of Developer Platforms with ButterCMS

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Composite of ButterCMS logo, Tuigo Technologies logo, and PSG Equity logo.

No. It's not just a "figma" of your imagination. 
<a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/" target="_blank">Adobe has agreed to spend $20 billion</a> – that's billion, with a "b" – to buy <a href="https://www.figma.com/" target="_blank">Figma</a>, the popular web-based collaboration and UI design platform. 
We'll give you a minute to pick your jaw up off the ground. 
Adobe said it expects the transaction to close sometime in 2023. That said, the deal has not yet been approved by Figma stockholders and must proceed through customary closing. The dollars are a mix: about half the total will be paid in Adobe stock, with the balance paid in cash. 
If you're not familiar with Figma, you will be now – but it's worth noting how awesome a platform it really is. It offers a deep set of collaboration options for joint software development, as well as its popular FigJam collaborative whiteboarding environment. If you haven't used that wipeboarding feature before, we highly recommend it. 
By now, we’re accustomed to Adobe spending big bucks to expand its copious monolith. These tasty acquisitions have bolstered its stronghold on the digital experience category – and while there may not be an Iron Throne to claim, it has certainly earned the crown as the King of the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3995917" target="_blank">Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>.
But forget all that. Forget the fact that <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3673934/adobes-20b-figma-acquisition-highlights-web-based-collaboration-trends.html#:~:text=The%20%2420%20billion%20figure%20is,a%20dedicated%20following%20among%20developers." target="_blank">Figma was valued at around $10 billion</a> at its last funding round in 2021 (meaning this purchase doubled the bounty). And let's not overlook that the market has been in a bout of turmoil lately, especially for tech stocks.
No – what's been really interesting is how this acquisition triggered such an emotional response from the market. Despite Adobe's enthusiasm about the deal, the Figma fanbase seemed a little less enthusiastic…
<img style="max-width:800px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/luke-skywalker-meme-no.jpg" alt="Luke Skywalker meme" />
And just like that, the Empire Strikes Back.
<h2>Why Figma? And why the pushback from fans?</h2>
The Figma acquisition speaks volumes about the growth of web collaboration software and the central role of design. But for its users, Figma represented everything Adobe wasn’t. In fact, Figma was a sort of the anti-Adobe. 
The fanbase has reason to be concerned: Adobe could bring Figma aboard the mothership under its expensive subscription model. There could be some poor integration or uncomfortable bloat. Even worse, it could become the kind of bolted-on utility that's prone to crashing – kind of like the Millennium Falcon with a broken hyperdrive.
Or, Adobe could do wonders with this amazing platform, building deeper functionality that expands the frontier for web-based collaboration within its toolsets. Figma's flexibility could be a game changer for the company and removes one of its digital experience rivals from the chessboard. 
One thing both companies have in common is the commitment to design. Founded by Dylan Field in 2016, Figma has held to the mantra that design should be collaborative, web-based, and real-time – with the mission to “open up” and move from the solitary design process. Figma has crystallized the concepts of sharing ideas and working collaboratively, something that Adobe’s UI design products like Photoshop have struggled to embrace. 
As for the fans, that's a product of Figma's heavy emphasis on community, which they have nurtured and grown over the years. This was likely a big driver of <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/figma/company_financials" target="_blank">Figma’s unicorn valuation</a>, which skyrocketed from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/software-design-startup-figma-is-now-worth-10-billion" target="_blank">$2 billion to $10 billion</a> in just a year. With more than 4 million users, including giants such as Microsoft, Slack, Google, Dropbox, and Twitter, the company has achieved the kind of presence and loyalty that are the envy of the tech world.
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/nothing-great-is-made-alone.jpg" alt="Figma - Nothing Great is Made Alone" />
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Adobe XD vs. Figma</h2>
So let's get down to brass tacks: Adobe XD and Figma are currently the most popular design tools on the market, both with similar features. For the past 5 years, Figma has been the biggest rival and competitor to Adobe XD, but Figma has managed to with the hearts of the design community. 
Figma believes the acquisition will help the Figma platform benefit from Adobe’s technology, expertise, and resources in the creative space. Figma has big ambitions for its products, with plans to improve its <a href="https://www.figma.com/design/" target="_blank">Figma Design</a>, <a href="https://www.figma.com/figjam/" target="_blank">FigJam</a>, and the <a href="https://www.figma.com/community/" target="_blank">Figma community</a> platforms while expanding into new areas.
“We will have the opportunity to incorporate their expertise in imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D, and font technology to the Figma platform," said <a href="https://twitter.com/zoink" target="_blank">Dylan Field</a>, Co-founder &amp; CEO of Figma. "Additionally, we will have the opportunity to reimagine what the best creative tools could look like within the Figma technology stack.”
Top-down leadership is key in these kinds of earth-shattering transitions. Taking designers’ concerns into account, Field reassured the Figma community that he will remain CEO and that Figma will keep operating autonomously – without compromising its culture, the way it runs its business, and (perhaps most importantly) its pricing. 
<h2>Growth by Acquisition</h2>
The news from Adobe is huge – but maybe not that surprising. Adobe has been driving growth by investing in tools and products to execute complex workflows across teams. As part of this evolution, it <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2020/Adobe-to-Acquire-Workfront/default.aspx" target="_blank">acquired Workflow</a> – a leading work management platform for marketers – for $1.50 billion in 2020. Last year, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-acquires-video-collaboration-platform-frame-io/" target="_blank">Adobe also acquired Frame.io</a>, an industry-leading collaboration platform, for $1.275 billion. 
In its <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-to-Acquire-Figma/default.aspx" target="_blank">press release</a>, Adobe stated that Figma’s web-based, multi-player capabilities will accelerate the delivery of Adobe’s Creative Cloud technologies on the web, making the creative process more productive and accessible to more people.
With this acquisition, Adobe once more solidified its position in the creative industry. With responsive design taking over about a decade ago, other apps such as <a href="https://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle/" target="_blank">Omnigraffle</a> and later <a href="https://www.sketch.com/" target="_blank">Sketch App</a> were born – and embraced by designers by offering a better solution for creating wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes suited for the responsive web. This was a huge departure from Photoshop and Illustrator and their respectively rigid structures. 
Figma is not alone in the web-based collaboration and UI design space. Platforms like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uxpin-merge-review-sync-react-components-with-prototypes/">UXPin</a>, another subscription-based wireframing and prototyping tool, are effectively <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uxpin-merge-review-sync-react-components-with-prototypes/" target="_blank">bridging the gap between designers and developers</a>. 
As Figma zeroes in on $400 million in revenues at the end of 2022, it's safe to say that there's ample potential in this growing market space – and we'll have to see how Adobe's mindboggling acquisition brings imagination to life. 
<h2>About Figma</h2>
Figma is the open design company founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace. With Figma’s cloud-based screen design tool, teams achieve a shared understanding around design without worrying about syncing, exporting, or installing software. Anyone involved in the product development process can always share up-to-date files with a link. That makes it easy to collaborate on the latest designs and prototypes and see their code attributes. Figma has simplified collaboration across the entire design process for thousands of companies like Microsoft, Slack, and Uber and millions of users, including designers, developers, product managers, marketers, and others.

Shock and Awe: Adobe to Acquire UI Design Platform Figma for $20 Billion

paris-tuzun

CivicPlus, the integrated tech platform for local governments, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Optimere, a leading provider of digital compliance, accessibility, and records management solutions. Upon closing, Optimere's ArchiveSocial, Monsido, and NextRequest solutions will be integrated with CivicPlus' comprehensive platform to create a better experience for residents and agencies that serve them.
CivicPlus provides integrated tech solutions that help local governments optimize digital interactions for residents and staff. According to the <a href="https://analytics.usa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statistics</a>, government websites get an average of 2 billion visits each month. Unfortunately, government websites are known for being slow, outdated, and generally a pain in the rear to use and navigate around. In the <a href="https://itif.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's</a> (ITIF's) <a href="http://www2.itif.org/2017-benchmarking-government-websites.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> of almost 300 of the most popular federal websites, approximately 92 percent failed to perform well in at least one of key areas: security, page-load time, mobile-friendly design, and accessibility.
Last year, <a href="https://archivesocial.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ArchiveSocial</a>, a social media archiving software for record retention, <a href="https://monsido.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Monsido</a>, the website accessibility and UX software, and <a href="https://www.nextrequest.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NextRequest</a>, a FOIA request management software, had <a href="https://optimere.com/archivesocial-monsido-nextrequest-create-optimere/?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=press-room&amp;utm_content=press-release&amp;utm_campaign=optimere-launch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">come together to form Optimere</a>, forming the most comprehensive platform for public-sector and regulated communicators to address their ever-increasing compliance requirements. Records retention, accessibility, and data privacy standards, including the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the American Disability Act (ADA), are in place to optimize communications. However, complying with these increasing regulations often leads to expensive litigation versus better communications. Optimere was formed to provide a solution to these complex issues so that organizations can reduce these risks and engage effectively across social channels and websites, building trust. 
According to Brian Rempe, CivicPlus's Chief Executive Officer, the acquisition represents an opportunity for CivicPlus to strengthen its support of its public sector customers' transparency, compliance, and accessibility needs.
"CivicPlus is committed to empowering our customers with technology solutions and services that enable them to govern, serve, and operate in ways that foster resident trust and appreciation," said Rempe. "Transparency and compliance are foundational components to interactions that strengthen relationships between public administrations and the people they serve. By adding Optimere's products to our integrated platform, we will help our customers in their goal to make every resident interaction positive, personalized, and frictionless."
Rempe added that, upon closing, the combined company's leaders will develop a roadmap for aligning Optimere's solutions within its Civic Experience Platform.
Ray Carey, Optimere Chief Executive Officer, noted that he is excited about the transaction and the prospect of working and growing with the CivicPlus team. “This is a great next step for our passionate and innovative team members at Optimere,” said Carey. “Being able to collaborate with CivicPlus’s people and products will lead to tremendous shared learnings and strengthen our ability to be a valuable partner to those entities looking to embrace digital transformation in ways that foster transparency and positive digital interactions.”
This announcement follows CivicPlus' acquisition of Municode, the largest codifier of legal documents for local governments in the United States and a nationally recognized provider of agenda and meeting management and municipal website design solutions and furthers CivicPlus' mission to become a scaled partner for local government.
<h2>About CivicPlus</h2>
CivicPlus® delivers technology solutions that enable local governments to optimize the experience they deliver when interacting with residents. Over 7,500 local governments use their solutions when serving their 340 million residents. CivicPlus delivers the industry’s first and only Civic Experience Platform. It enables local governments to drive more revenue, operate more efficiently, and generate positive recognition for the many services they provide every day. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.civicplus.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">civicplus.com</a>.
<h2>About Optimere</h2>
Optimere is the leading provider of digital compliance, accessibility, and records management solutions that illuminate the path to trusted communications. Optimere has over 6,000 customers globally and is the maker of brands including ArchiveSocial, Monsido, and NextRequest. For more information, visit <a href="https://optimere.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Optimere.com</a>.

CivicPlus Enters into Agreement to Acquire Optimere

commercetools, a leading headless e-Commerce platform, recently announced the acquisition of Frontastic, a composable frontend platform. 
The purchase comes just a few months after commercetools announced a $140 million <a href="https://commercetools.com/press-releases/commercetools-secures-140m-series-c-funding-round-to-accelerate-global-growth" target="_blank">Series C funding round</a> – a plump investment, to be sure, and one that the company hopes will broaden the reach of its game-changing commerce technology for creating differentiated user experiences.
It's worth noting that commercetools was one of the earlier headless commerce platforms on the scene, helping to shape the modern standards for headless commerce. Their decoupled environment now enables a multitude of commerce capabilities across an ever-growing network of channels and endpoints. Like other platforms in the composable field, commercetools also embraces the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH principles</a> – providing a truly open, modular environment that enables businesses to quickly embrace innovation and respond to change.  
"We've been partnering with the Frontastic team since the very beginning and see a huge market opportunity for their Composable Frontend Platform around the world," said Dirk Hoerig, CEO, and Co-Founder of commercetools. "With this powerful combination, we're bringing the MACH (Microservices, API, Cloud, and Headless) movement to the mid-market as well as to digital business teams so that more companies can benefit from modern commerce experiences."
commercetools has enjoyed a strong presence in Europe and North America, but their global aspirations are clear. Their expansion will undoubtedly be bolstered by their "Leader" position on <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/4005295/magic-quadrant-for-digital-commerce" target="_blank">Gartner's 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce</a> – making this their second consecutive year in this coveted segment. 
<img style="max-width:487px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-commerce-2021-quadrant-graphic.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for digital commerce 2021 Quadrant" />
In a previous article, we featured commercetools as one of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">our Top Headless Commerce Platforms</a>, so be sure to check that out.
<h3>What is Frontastic?</h3>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/frontastic-header.png" alt="frontastic workflow" />
Based in Germany, Frontastic is a composable frontend platform for API-First e-Commerce and headless CMSes. It enables brands to build websites quickly and easily with headless capabilities by removing the complexity for developers – and giving business teams autonomy and flexibility. 
Frontastic combines four tools:
<ol>
<li>An API hub that includes standard integrations for commerce, content, search, and connectivity to any API.</li>
<li>Developer tooling that includes a CLI to manage components with a built-in workflow to go from development to testing to production.</li>
<li>Frontastic Studio, an easy-to-use interface that enables teams to manage pages, components, navigation, and layouts.</li>
<li>Frontend delivery via a Progressive Web App (PWA) – which provides great performance and an app-like user experience – and server-side rendering that ensures fast delivery and SEO-friendly pages.</li>
</ol>
While their combined capabilities have yet to be fully explored, the existing partnership between commercetools and Frontastic will likely enable a more efficient time to integration.
"We're excited to become part of the impressive commercetools growth story," said Thomas Gottheil, CEO, and Co-Founder at Frontastic. "We created Frontastic to help enterprises build the best shopping experiences – regardless of which commerce platform they use. By joining forces with commercetools, we can support even more brands on a global scale."
<h2>The impact of headless commerce and MACH architecture</h2>
As companies accelerated their digital transformation strategies throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the retail industry – hit hard by the shutdown of brick-and-mortar storefronts – drove the leap to digital commerce. To be sure, many organizations already had an integrated strategy for selling in both physical and online stores. However, in the throes of the pandemic, those online stores became their only channel, and they invested heavily in e-Commerce solutions that could amplify their capabilities and be quickly deployed.
You've probably heard the buzz around MACH and the evolution of composable architectures. If not, let's start with the basics: MACH is an acronym for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless. While the MACH architecture is a relatively new concept, it's quickly gaining popularity due to its modular nature – allowing businesses to compose the best tools to meet their exact business requirements and scale their experiences rapidly. 
The <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">headless</a> approach has moved from niche to normal. While the "<a href="https://www.akana.com/blog/composable-architecture" target="_blank">composable architecture</a>" concept is much newer, it's also becoming more popular as digital transformation enters its next wave. And it makes sense: leading up to Covid, digital stacks were already becoming decoupled and less monolithic, all driven by the rise of the <a href="https://www.openapis.org/" target="_blank">open API</a>. Much of this investment in a composable enterprise is driven by the rise in composable commerce and its impact on the application landscape. 
Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that embrace composability will <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3986490/composable-commerce-must-be-adopted-for-the-future-of-ap" target="_blank">outpace the competition by 80%</a> in implementing new product features.
commercetools, which made the exclusive 2021 list of privately held "unicorn companies" worth over $1 billion, has experienced accelerated growth over the past year, with recent customer wins that include Alcon, Debenhams, Direct Wines, Express, LEGO, L.L. Bean, Screwfix, Volkswagen, and Zenni Optical. With the addition of the Frontastic composable frontend technology to the company's product portfolio, commercetools is building a broader set of commerce technology services to support global enterprises – and ultimately reinvent e-Commerce.
<h2>About Frontastic</h2>
Founded in 2017, Frontastic is a composable frontend platform that unites business and development teams to build amazing commerce sites on headless – fast. It connects to any API to unify tech landscapes and provides the necessary tools so commerce teams can focus on innovating new features. Within a short time, the company has successfully established itself as the new standard for commerce frontends, with its customers seeing up to 50% higher conversion rates and up to 50% faster time to market.
Find out more about Frontastic on <a href="http://www.frontastic.cloud/" target="_blank">www.frontastic.cloud</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/frontasticGmbH" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/frontastic-gmbh/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

commercetools Acquires Frontastic, Adds Composable Frontend Capabilities to Headless Commerce

Composite image of the commercetools and frontastic logos on a blended background

With little time to reflect on <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-ai-powered-search-platform-reflektion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sitecore's recent acquisition of Reflektion</a>, another enterprise DXP has helped itself to strategic snack – providing more evidence that the market's appetite for expansion is still voracious. 
Just a few days ago, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/faq/acquia-acquires-widen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acquia</a>, a leading digital experience platform, announced its purchase of <a href="https://www.widen.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Widen</a> – a cloud-native digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) provider. 
While the past 18 months have seen a relentless cycle of consolidation across the industry, it now seems that <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gartner's crop of DXP leaders</a> are playing pole position around critical gaps in their DXP stack. What started with optimization and customer data is now evolving into a heated race for robustness on every level – and for Acquia, digital asset management has been missing from the mix.
Here's more on what the acquisition could mean for the Drupal-based DXP platform.
<h2>Widen bring best-of-breed DAM and PIM capabilities to Acquia</h2>
Widen's value proposition is fairly simple: it unites <a href="https://www.widen.com/blog/digital-asset-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digital assets</a> such as rich media, product information, and marketing content into a single workflow and provides an intuitive interface that democratizes access to a brand's resources. 
In layman's terms, it makes finding and using assets like video, graphics, and copy much easier for marketing professionals (or anyone for that matter).
Whether you're a content strategist, UX designer, marketer, or web developer, delivering a great user experience is always the mission – and good content is essential to that goal. Widen has focused on the asset side of the Content Operations flow, enabling users to enhance their experience with access to the right components. 
Acquiring the capabilities of a DAM and a PIM are "strategic gold" for Acquia. To create personalized customer engagement at scale, brands are creating immense volumes of digital content. Traditionally, DAMs have helped simplify a marketer's access to this content while managing versions and workflows to ensure consistency. But within the context of a DXP, a modern DAM must also provide robust technical capabilities and extensibility. Additionally, a PIM solution should enable product data enrichment with marketing copy and digital assets to easily create branded product content. 
Together, these capabilities help organizations create and refine distinctive digital experiences based on evolving customer preferences – which is exactly what Acquia aims to do. It's also worth noting that the worldwide market for <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5311981/digital-asset-management-market-global-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DAM is projected to grow to $8.5B by 2025</a>, a 15% CAGR. <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5304126/product-information-management-global-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PIM is set to increase from $8.8B last year to $18B in 2027</a>, an 11% CAGR. This underscores the value of the investment. 
"Acquia has long been an established leader in managing textual website content," said Dries Buytaert, Co-founder, and CTO of Acquia. "Now, with Widen, we will be able to offer world-class capabilities around rich media and product information content. Widen is consistently ranked a leader by industry analysts for vision, execution, and market presence. We have numerous joint customers today and believe Widen software will deliver value to Acquia Marketing Cloud and Drupal Cloud customers. We're excited to welcome the Widen team to the Acquia family and to collaborate with them on Acquia Open DXP."
<h2>Acquia Open DXP with Widen maximizes the value of digital content </h2>
When it comes to expanding the stack, the buying spree continues – and Acquia was already leading a similar trajectory as other DXPs, particularly in the Customer Data Platform (CDP) layer. Aquia <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-digital-commerce-unifies-data-content-commerce-and-digital-merchandising/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquired AgilOne</a> two years ago, while in the last six months, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sitecore acquired Boxever</a> and Optimizely <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquired Zaius</a>. 
While some other platforms have already addressed DAM capabilities as part of their DXP offering, Widen presents a more advanced solution that will enable Acquia with key advantages. Now, marketers will be able to create, review, manage, distribute and analyze content across the entire lifecycle and support complex marketing workflows and enterprise DXP requirements.
"With Widen, we continue to differentiate Acquia Open DXP by adding enterprise-grade, cloud-native DAM, and PIM capabilities," said Mike Sullivan, President, and CEO of Acquia. "We will immediately invest in accelerated development of the Widen solution and leverage our global capabilities and partner network to bring it to marketing organizations that use Acquia Open DXP to manage, transform and deliver digital assets at scale."
Widen also goes beyond managing creative assets to include storing unstructured data such as legal documents, insurance claims, and contact lists. The marketing-friendly Widen PIM solution delivers product data from creators to customers – centralizing it for syndication across websites, catalogs and e-commerce channels. 
Widen also brings a portfolio of more than 700 customers to the Acquia ecosystem, including notable brands like Carnival Cruises, Crayola, Energizer, Kohler, LG, McCormick, New Balance, Progressive, and more. This is yet another differentiator for Acquia as they look to compete with other leading enterprise platforms. 
"Content is the heart of any digital experience," said Matthew Gonnering, CEO of Widen. "It influences action across marketing channels; email, social media, content management systems, marketing campaigns, e-commerce, product information management, and more. By combining with Acquia, a company that shares Widen's belief that radical innovation starts with commitment to customers and the community, we will continue to rapidly innovate our solutions to support the first and only open digital experience platform."
Widen will be available as part of Acquia Open DXP or as a standalone offering. To read more, visit the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-continues-rapid-growth-plans-acquire-widen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acquia</a> or <a href="https://www.widen.com/blog/an-open-message-from-widen-ceo-matthew-gonnering" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Widen</a> blogs.
The transaction is expected to close in late September 2021.
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
<a href="https://www.acquia.com">Acquia</a> empowers the world's most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open-source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that engage customers, enhance conversions and help businesses stand out.
<h2>About Widen</h2>
Established in 1948, <a href="https://www.widen.com/">Widen</a> builds high-performing software that empowers organizations to create impactful, measurable and consistent brand experiences. Its platform spans brand management, marketing resource management, and product information management solutions and has enabled over one million marketers, content creators, and technologists at over 660 global brands to better connect with audiences. Customers include Dyson, New Balance, Energizer, Laura Mercier, Nars, Zeiss, Salvation Army, Citizen Watch, the Atlanta Falcons, Carnival Cruise Line, and many more. Headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and with a European office in London, UK, Widen has the highest customer loyalty in the digital asset management (DAM) industry.

Acquia Widens Its DXP Stack with Widen, Acquires DAM and PIM Capabilities

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In the battle for digital domination, search reigns supreme – and brands are stepping up their search game.According to a survey by SearchNode, 68% of eCommerce industry leaders are improving their search functionality in 2021 and expanding the lens of their magnifying glasses. That plays directly into today's news that digital experience platform provider <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore</a> is acquiring San Mateo-based <a target="_blank" href="https://reflektion.com/">Reflektion,</a> an AI-powered digital search solution that understands and predicts patterns, context, and needs – so brands can convert more shoppers into buyers.The addition of Reflektion's technology will enable Sitecore to better engage, educate, and empower shoppers to make purchase decisions faster – increasing buyer confidence, long-term revenue, and overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.The acquisition – a continuation of Sitecore’s epic <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-embarks-on-1-2b-investment-plan-to-accelerate-growth/">$1.2 billion growth plan</a> – will help marketers solve the information overload that is characteristic of traditional search solutions, which can impede a customer's ability to find and select the products they're looking for.When <a target="_blank" href="https://www.webfx.com/seo/statistics/#:~:text=When%20people%20go%20online%20to,search%20engine%20to%20guide%20them.">93% of all online experiences start with search</a>, it's fair to say that it's essential to the customer buying journey. Reflektion elevates the value of search by transforming it into a conversational, guided experience that provides more personal, accessible, and tailored answers for the customer. “Search is about more than just entering words into a box and hoping for the right results – it is the cornerstone of a digital experience," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzikakis/">Steve Tzikakis</a>, CEO, Sitecore. "With Reflektion, a brand can add various types of search including personalized search, preview search, conversational search, and voice search. This reduces customers’ effort and anxiety to find exactly what they need – with more convenience and speed – and leads to increased customer satisfaction with more conversions and revenue. Acquiring Reflektion reinforces Sitecore’s position as the leader in digital experience technologies that meets customers at the moment with more relevant, intuitive, and human experiences.”<h2>Elevating the E-commerce Experience with AI</h2>Reflektion brings an array of complementary commerce, AI, and personalization capabilities to Sitecore, which will further augment the DXP's acquisition of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/">Four51,</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/">Boxever</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-moosend-adds-ai-powered-email-marketing-automation/">Moosend</a>. Together, this nexus of data and deep learning technologies will allow Sitecore to seamlessly deliver intelligent, personalized, real-time information across channels.Four51’s API-first, headless e-commerce solution enables organizations to quickly and easily deliver engaging shopping experiences, helping them improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Four51’s feature set complements their existing B2C commerce capabilities while the Customer Data Platform (CDP) Boxever enhances customer intelligence with AI-driven personalization tools – making it easy to capture, unify and activate customer data and deliver personalized experiences at scale.With a robust stack powering their growth across data and digital commerce, search presents an ideal channel for connecting and expanding Sitecore's breadth of capabilities – and Reflektion delivers on that vision.“Since its inception eight years ago, Reflektion has become recognized for its unique approach to search-product discovery technology," said Amar Chokhawala, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Reflektion. "Our technology uses AI to adjust each consumer’s digital experience, in the moment, based on diverse data from multiple channels. I am proud of the passionate team at Reflektion who has been successful in bringing our AI-first approach to many site-search deployments for large e-commerce and retailers’ websites. With Sitecore, the Reflektion team and customers will be able to continue to leverage the enhancement of digital experiences, leading to continued growth and results for all.”The acquisition is expected to close in September 2021.<h2>Ramping Up the Competition</h2>Sitecore fired a "shot heard 'round the DXP world" last January when it announced its ambitious $1.2 billion growth strategy – which brewed speculation amongst competitors and analysts alike.While the mature market player celebrated its fourth year in a row as a Leader on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, it fell slightly behind both Acquia and Episerver (now Optimizely). <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms-2021.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms-2021" /><a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/resources/forrester-wave-agile-cms-2021-report/">Forrester’s Q1 Wave Report for Agile CMSes</a> paints a similar picture. Since 2019, Sitecore has elevated its Strong Performer status, now straddling the fence of the Leaders circle with a wider market presence. But like the Gartner MQ, they are lagging behind Acquia and Optimizely.With the acquisition of Boxever, Four51, Moosend, and now Reflektion, Sitecore seems poised to pounce. As competition heats up at the highest level of the enterprise, CMS and DXP players are accelerating their investment in innovation – and buying up the missing pieces to their platform puzzle. With consumers relying more on AI-driven voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, the channel opportunities for search are expanding in dynamic ways. Sitecore's bid to stay top-of-mind and top-of-market will require more than acquisitions. But their stack is looking more like a vision – and that's what every platform is searching for.<h2>About Sitecore</h2>Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform that empowers the world’s smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. A highly decorated industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalized experiences for their customers. Learn more at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore.com</a>.<h2>About Reflektion</h2>Reflektion’s Digital Commerce Experience Platform for eCommerce and Retail listens to the behaviors of each individual shopper, utilizes <a target="_blank" href="https://reflektion.com/glossary/artificial-intelligence-ai/">Artificial Intelligence</a> to calculate their preferences and intent, and then responds to every moment-to-moment interaction by displaying the most relevant content and products in real-time and across the digital touchpoints that matter most—including preview and site search, product recommendations, category and <a target="_blank" href="https://reflektion.com/glossary/landing-page/">landing pages</a>, and email.Leading retail brands such as Skechers, Ulta, Reeds, Petco, Ascena and RiteAid rely on Reflektion’s platform.Founded by pioneers in Artificial Intelligence and awarded both the Best eCommerce Solution and Best Overall Business Technology Solution by SIIA in 2019, Reflektion combines individual shopper insights, product intelligence, and <a target="_blank" href="https://reflektion.com/glossary/artificial-intelligence-ai/">AI</a> to create more relevant and impactful eCommerce experiences.

Sitecore Acquires AI-Powered Search Platform Reflektion

With <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/805656/number-youtube-viewers-worldwide/" target="_blank">1.86 billion YouTube users</a> and the explosion of <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/en/" target="_blank">Tiktok</a>, it's clear that video is eating the internet. 
According to <a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/youtube-stats/" target="_blank">statistics</a>, video is one of the most popular ways to consume content, with 85% of U.S. internet users accessing online video through YouTube at least once per week. Further, the demand for pandemic-induced streaming content is at an all-time high, with <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/" target="_blank">Netflix</a> counting 207.64 million paid subscribers worldwide in Q1 of 2021.
Of course, no one knows this better than <a href="https://www.adobe.com/" target="_blank">Adobe</a>, which powers best-of-breed video production via their flagship <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html" target="_blank">Premiere Pro</a> and <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html" target="_blank">After Effects</a> products. Speed continues to be a critical component when it comes to video content creators, and in recent years, other tools have disrupted the market – including basic tools like Wondershare's <a href="https://filmora.wondershare.com/?AFFILIATE=102100&amp;__c=1" target="_blank">Filmora</a> and free platforms like <a href="https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/" target="_blank">DaVinci Resolve</a>. The widening expanse of choices has driven down costs and increased access to a wider range of users. 
To compete, Adobe is turning to the workflow "gap" that exists in the market around video collaboration. To shore up their offering and better position against the competitive field, the digital giant <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2021/Adobe-to-Acquire-Frame.io/default.aspx" target="_blank">has entered into an agreement to acquire Frame.io</a>, an industry-leading video collaboration platform. 
The transaction, valued at $1.275 billion, is expected to close during the fourth quarter of Adobe’s 2021 fiscal year.
<h2>What is Frame.io?</h2>
Frame.io streamlines the video production process by enabling video editors and key project stakeholders to collaborate using cloud-first workflows seamlessly. The cloud-native platform provides an elegant way to gather feedback from everyone involved in the video production – from the director to the script supervisor to all the people who need to approve the final project. 
<div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 mb-4"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7LjejmHOiTw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
Recently, Frame.io launched "<a href="https://www.frame.io/c2c/" target="_blank">Camera to Cloud</a>," the fastest, easiest, and most secure way to instantly get footage from cameras to collaborators anywhere in the world. Adobe has already been working with Frame.io to collaborate on videos for their website, social media, and events.
<h2>Collaboration is the name of the game</h2>
In a pandemic-driven world, shooting on location or traveling to obtain footage is becoming a more arduous task – if not altogether impossible. In addition, more teams are expected to work remotely yet still deliver large volumes of video content, all at a time when the demand for video content is increasing exponentially. 
All these changes have forced the video industry to adapt and rethink, and Adobe has been leading the way by investing in tools and products to execute complex workflows across teams. As part of their evolution, they <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2020/Adobe-to-Acquire-Workfront/default.aspx" target="_blank">acquired Workflow</a> – a leading work management platform for marketers – for $1.50 billion last year. This was rivaled by Salesforce's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-salesforce-completes-acquisition-of-slack-contentsquare-accelerates-ml-capabilities-and-more/" target="_blank">recent acquisition of Slack</a>, the leading team communications platform. 
What's clear is that digital collaboration is now a key foundation of all creative endeavors. Video teams must produce an ever-increasing continuum of content, and each video project requires various stakeholders, including video editors, producers, agencies, and clients. 
Today’s video workflows are disjointed, with multiple tools and communication channels being used to solicit stakeholder feedback. Frame.io eliminates the inefficiencies of video workflows by enabling real-time footage upload, access, and in-line stakeholder collaboration in a secure and elegant experience across surfaces.
“We’ve entered a new era of connected creativity that is deeply collaborative, and we imagine a world where everyone can participate in the creative process,” said Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of Adobe's Creative Cloud. “With this acquisition, we’re welcoming an incredible customer-oriented team and adding Frame.io’s cloud-native workflow capabilities to make the creative process more collaborative, productive, and efficient to further unleash creativity for all.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/image-viewer.png" alt="Frame.io image viewer" />
Adobe’s acquisition of Frame.io brings Adobe Creative Cloud’s collaboration services to video. It builds on recent innovations for creative collaboration, including Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries, Cloud Documents, Design Systems in Adobe XD, Adobe Stock, and Adobe Fonts – which together with Frame.io, will make it easy for teams to collaborate across Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and other Adobe Creative Cloud applications.
The combination of Adobe’s industry-leading creative software and Frame.io’s review and approval functionality will deliver a collaboration platform that powers the entire video editing process.
<h2>Video workflows must empower all stakeholders</h2>
With the combination of Frame.io and Adobe, Creative Cloud customers – from video editors to producers to marketers – will benefit from seamless collaboration on video projects. Frame.io's workflow functionality will now be a native part of Adobe Creative Cloud applications like Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Photoshop.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/commenting-and-collaboration.jpg" />
“Frame.io and Adobe share a vision for the future of video creation and collaboration that brings together Adobe’s strength in video creation and production and Frame.io’s cloud-native platform,” said Emery Wells, Frame.io's co-founder and CEO. “We’re excited to join Adobe to continue to drive video innovation for the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, agencies, and brands.”
Upon close of the acquisition, Wells and fellow Frame.io co-founder John Traver will join Adobe. Wells will continue to lead the Frame.io team, reporting to Scott Belsky. The transaction, valued at $1.275 billion (subject to customary purchase price adjustments) is expected to close during the fourth quarter of Adobe’s 2021 fiscal year and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
The role of video in any content strategy is more pronounced than ever. As CMS and DXP platforms continue to expand their functionality and integrations, the ability to leverage video and ease the process of delivery will be instrumental. With Adobe remaining solidly in a leadership role across multiple DX categories, they are uniquely positioned to think ahead of the market and address critical issues – like workflow collaboration.
While their heritage as a creative development ecosystem is strong, Adobe's vision for mapping the future of digital experiences is even stronger. We'll be curious to see how these latest investments chart as more products enter the hot video market and lower the barrier to entry. As Gen Z influencers generate instant videos with off-the-shelf tools and resources on their iPhones, it's clear that the game will continue to change at multiple levels. Even so, there's a compelling need to work with other people in a production environment – and that's where Adobe is leading the way.
<h2>About Frame.io</h2>
<a href="https://www.frame.io/" target="_blank">Frame.io</a> is one of the world’s leading video review and approval platforms with over 1 million users. Integrated with most major professional video tools, Frame.io streamlines the creative process by centralizing assets and feedback in the cloud. This allows remote creative teams to collaborate securely and in real-time from anywhere in the world.
Conceived and designed in 2015 by video creators Emery Wells and John Traver, Frame.io is intuitive and simple, yet powerful enough for creative professionals, technical administrators, and clients to use with little (or no) training. Frame.io accelerates workflows and eliminates obstacles to creativity. From script or storyboard to dailies through delivery, Frame.io has reinvented the modern video workflow.
<h2>About Adobe</h2>
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com&amp;esheet=52479752&amp;newsitemid=20210819005739&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.adobe.com&amp;index=3&amp;md5=16bfbb09ccdd811085bcdfd56783339b" target="_blank">www.adobe.com</a>.

Adobe Acquires Video Collaboration Platform Frame.io

It would appear that the cows have come home: in a surprising move, Sitecore yesterday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire <a href="https://moosend.com/">Moosend</a>, an e-mail marketing automation and campaign management platform used by a diverse set of customers. This includes leading brands such as Domino’s, Interpublic Group, and Sephora, among others. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of May. 
“Moosend perfectly complements Sitecore’s industry-leading core offering to create a personalization powerhouse for modern enterprises," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzikakis/" target="_blank">Steve Tzikakis</a>, the CEO of Sitecore. "Moosend’s state-of-the-art marketing automation and AI-powered customer engagement features will streamline Sitecore’s ability to engage, nurture, and convert customer relationships to deliver personalized experiences across every channel. The combined offering will make it easier for marketers to deploy and measure campaigns and automate workflows across the entire customer journey – a game-changer for <a href="https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/responsible-marketing-with-first-party-data" target="_blank">the majority</a> of brands not yet set up for lifecycle marketing.” 
Acquisitions have become almost commonplace among the leaders in the CMS and DXP categories, particularly with solutions that expand a platform's capabilities around data. According to Sitecore, this move was driven by the ongoing shifts in data-driven personalization – and the risks and challenges posed by privacy. While data is essential to personalization, there are mounting concerns around privacy due to breaches caused by problematic data collection methods. This, along with other factors, have businesses questioning the value of personalization at scale. 
In fact, back in 2019, Gartner <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-12-02-gartner-predicts-80--of-marketers-will-abandon-person" target="_blank">predicted</a> that 80% of marketers would abandon personalization efforts by 2025 due to the increased complexity and a lack of consumer trust. It was a gloomy outlook for both marketers and technology vendors, but clearly on point in a world of scaling data privacy governance. 
Consumers are often unaware of how and when their data is being collected and where it is used. They’re also experiencing overload from increasingly cluttered inboxes and mobile notifications, causing them to ignore even the most carefully customized message. The resulting conundrum has left CMS and DXP platforms struggling with how to serve personalized experiences while meeting the consumer expectation of privacy and trust across multiple dimensions. 
“It’s a paradox of modern times," said Tzikakis. "Consumers expect brands to cater to them as unique individuals, providing a consistent experience everywhere and rewarding loyalty in deeper ways; at the same time, they want privacy first – more control over data, less confusion on how it’s used, and an end to creepy targeting and algorithmically garbled messaging that only a bot would love.” 
Recognizing the depth of the privacy problem, Sitecore aims to facilitate both the modern art and science of earning customer relationships through experiences – to make consenting to data-sharing an afterthought. If they can deliver on this vision, they may have a significant advantage in shaping the future of the industry.
The acquisition of Moosend is just the latest move in Sitecore’s ambitious $1.2 billion growth plan. In a highly publicized purchase less than two months ago, the DXP leader <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/" target="_blank">acquired</a> two companies on the same day: Boxever, a SaaS-based Customer Data Platform (CDP) providing decisioning and experimentation, and Four51 – a digital commerce pioneer that powers custom, highly scalable e-commerce B2B marketplace solutions. With the addition of Moosend, it appears that Sitecore has amassed everything it needs to deliver a complete, end-to-end SaaS-based digital experience platform – and elevate their competitive posture. 
<h3>About Sitecore</h3>
Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform that empowers the world’s smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. A highly decorated industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Carnival Cruise Lines, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal, and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalized experiences for their customers. Learn more at <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore.com</a>.

Sitecore Acquires Moosend, Adds AI-Powered Email Marketing Automation

Optimizely (formerly Episerver), a leading Digital Experience Platform, <a href="https://www.episerver.com/company/press-room/optimizely-strengthens-its-digital-experience-leadership-with-acquisition-of-customer-data-platform-zaius">announced today that it has acquired Zaius</a>, a Customer Data Platform (CDP).
The announcement comes just months after the company’s <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">acquisition of Optimizely</a> last September, which led to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-rebrands-as-optimizely-following-acquisition/">Episerver's rebranding</a> of its entire organization under the Optimizely banner.
“At Zaius, we’ve always believed that having the customer’s context was the unfair advantage to creating the most relevant experiences for customers,” said Spencer Pingry, co-founder and co-CEO of Zaius. “Analytics, segmentation, predictions, and personalization fueled by this context lead to experiences that drive customer loyalty. We are proud of how that has created growth for our customers and partners, and look forward to joining Optimizely to expand that story.”
<h3>The race for customer data</h3>
As enterprise content management (CMS) and digital experience (DXP) platforms battle for market share, customer data has become an almost essential component in the fight. With the purchase of Zaius, Optimizely is now positioned with a data-driven stack of services that will power digital experiences for customers – and elevate their competitive posture.
Breaking down "data silos" has become a critical objective for many organizations. According to <a href="https://learn.segment.com/customer-data-platform-report-2021/">Segment’s 2021 CDP Report</a>, 73% of companies say that a CDP will be instrumental to their customer experience strategy. Based on the metrics detailed in the report, 2020 saw exponential growth in customer data – and that only appears to be growing.
DXPs have recognized this problem, and are now making rapid progress towards unifying their data. For example, in the CDP layer of the stack, Segment is connecting customer data from fragmented corners of the ecosystem. This is why Twilio dropped a whopping $3.2 billion to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">acquire Segment</a> for building and powering data-driven apps.
Likewise, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe has invested</a> heavily in the customer data column, enhancing their platform capabilities for creating personalized, app-like experiences that leverage customer data from end to end. And most recently, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/">Sitecore acquired Boxever</a> – adding a proven CDP to their ecosystem.
<h3>Combining DXP and CDP capabilities</h3>
Optimizely lost little time catching up with the other big platforms (like Adobe), acknowledging that organizations can no longer rely on third-party customer data to personalize experiences. With Zaius, Optimizely will be able to bridge what has traditionally been disconnected data points and bring them into context with one another.
In addition to being data-driven, Optimizely aspires to be customer-centric. With Zaius, they will now be able to segment customer data in combination with their interactions, observe behaviors through experiments, and gain powerful insights. Having a complete understanding of all those factors will enable Optimizely’s customers to create hyper-personalized experiences and maximize their ROIs.
Zaius’s segmentation engine – coupled with Optimizely’s behavioral data from experiments and transactional insights from its content and commerce platform – will provide a new level of agility. Powered by out-of-the-box AI/ML predictions, the combined platform can unlock even more value by providing visibility and guidance through the lens of the customer.
Zaius also brings 50 pre-built app connectors to Optimizely – including <a href="https://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a>, <a href="https://www.snowflake.com/">Snowflake</a>, and <a href="https://www.zendesk.com/">Zendesk</a> – which are available as one-click integrations. These connectors rapidly streamline the data integration process and automate identity resolution with consent management.
<h3>A Leader on the Gartner MQ for DXP</h3>
Optimizely has been recognized as a Leader for the second consecutive year in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, trailing right behind Adobe and <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a>.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/s_34fafa0fd97f0b313e9551a1a563ae47406307c485dcb3a22cab4c5d6a2125fe_1616432299291_figure_1_magic_quadrant_for_digital_experience_platforms.png" /></figure>
While the players have shifted positions from 2020, the crop of leaders has made significant investments or acquisitions in customer data platforms to compete more effectively.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Salesforce has been gaining ground against DXPs in the Challenger quadrant. As the world’s leading CRM and customer data platform, they have elevated their position by addressing key deficiencies on the experience and content management side – which includes the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/salesforce-cms-review-evolving-a-crm-powerhouse-into-a-dxp-challenger/">launch of their own CMS</a> in late 2019.
<h3>What's next for Optimizely and Zaius</h3>
With the purchase of Zaius, Optimizely has fully stacked their deck – adding the all-important customer data piece to the puzzle. As they begin to integrate the core capabilities into their platform offering, it's conceivable that they may give Acquia and Adobe a run for their money in next year's MQ report.
As 2021 continues to unfold, we'll be watching the impact of this investment and how it continues to shape Optimizely's strategy.
<h3>About Optimizely (Episerver)</h3>
<a href="http://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a> (Episerver) is on a mission to help people unlock their digital potential. With their leading digital experience platform (DXP), they equip teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely’s 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM, and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands.
<h3>About Zaius</h3>
Zaius is the Activated Customer Data Platform that assists growing brands to achieve higher customer lifetime value by delivering relevance across the entire customer journey, from anonymous browsers to loyal shoppers. Zaius aligns entire organizations around customer data allowing digital leaders to create relevant customer experiences through harmonization of their data, understanding and action that differentiates their brand and drives customer loyalty.

Optimizely Acquires Customer Data Platform Zaius

<a href="https://www.hyland.com/en">Hyland</a>, an enterprise content management (ECM) and process management provider, has <a href="https://news.hyland.com/hyland-enters-into-agreement-for-the-acquisition-of-nuxeo">signed an agreement</a> providing for exclusive negotiations to acquire <a href="https://www.nuxeo.com/">Nuxeo</a> – a content services and digital asset management (DAM) platform.
A leading ECM provider, Hyland is best known for its <a href="https://www.onbase.com/en">Onbase</a> and <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/perceptive">Perceptive</a> content management products, which securely centralize enterprise content and deliver relevant information to users across a wide variety of industries – including healthcare, finance, insurance, higher education, and manufacturing.
Nuxeo offers a cloud-native, open-source, low-code platform with content services and DAM capabilities, among others.
“We’ve innovated an entirely modern platform that provides both enterprise-class content services and digital asset management capabilities," said Eric Barroca, CEO of Nuxeo. "And we look forward to bringing these capabilities to the Hyland portfolio as well as leveraging Hyland’s considerable global resources to deliver even greater success to our customers and partners."
<h3>A Leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/figure_1_magic_quadrant_for_content_services_platforms.png" alt="Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms" style="max-width:570px" /></figure>
Hyland has been a consistent force in the ECM and content services landscape, commanding the second-place position in the Leader Quadrant of <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/explore/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-content-services-platforms">Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms</a>.
While Hyland has been trailing right behind <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/12/08/over-200-million-users-rely-on-sharepoint-as-microsoft-is-again-recognized-as-a-leader-in-the-2020-gartner-content-services-platforms-magic-quadrant-report/#:~:text=Leading%20in%20the%20Gartner%20Content,Platforms%20Magic%20Quadrant%20for%202020.">Microsoft’s 365 platform</a> (fueled primarily by <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration">Sharepoint</a>), they were also being followed closely by <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/">Alfresco</a>, a fast-growing open-source content services platform that was gaining ground in the market but still viewed as a somewhat niche solution by large enterprises.
Following suit with many other CMS and DXP platforms in the last year, Hyland <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">acquired Alfresco</a> in 2020, eliminating their next closest competitor and changing the game in the leadership grid.
While buying a competitor is far from novel, Alfresco’s low-code tools – combined with its ability to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) services from <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/ecm-software/aws">cloud providers like AWS</a> – were likely key factors in Hyland's decision, enabling them to accelerate their modernization efforts.
<h3>Adding Nuxeo's low-code AI service and DAM capabilities</h3>
With the Nuxeo acquisition, Hyland is consuming another competitor – this time from the Visionary quadrant of Gartner's MQ for Content Services Platforms.
Nuxeo brings some unique assets to Hyland that may translate into significant advantages against Microsoft and Sharepoint. First, it gains <a href="https://www.nuxeo.com/content-services-platform/ai/">Nuxeo Insight</a> – an AI offering that enables customers to use their own data and content to train custom ML models for a variety of business applications. This includes enriching content with metadata, classifying people, products and records, automating forms processing, and more.
The critical advantage with Nuxeo Insight is that it generates ML models that are trained with a customer’s own data – rendering them far more accurate and insightful than typical AI services offered through public clouds (like AWS).
Nuxeo is also known for its strong enterprise <a href="https://www.nuxeo.com/solutions/dam-digital-asset-management/">DAM capabilities</a>, which provide out-of-the-box solutions for enterprises. Additionally, its large-scale repository – which includes NoSQL and distributed file system options – provides storage and scalability support for organizations with a large number of documents.
In fact, last year, Nuxeo proved its scalability performance with an <a href="https://benchmarks.nuxeo.com/11-billion-benchmark-story/">11-billion-object benchmark test</a> on AWS.
<h3>What does the Nuxeo acquisition mean for Hyland?</h3>
Considering some of Hyland’s core industry verticals – specifically finance – Nuxeo may be well worth the investment. Along with its cloud-native, low-code solutions, Nuxeo's open source community and AI-driven capabilities address key gaps in Hyland's modernization strategy, and will likely be a source of continued product innovation.
The transaction is expected to close in April 2021. Until that time, both companies will continue to operate as two companies. Upon transaction close, Nuxeo's business will be integrated into Hyland.
<h3>About Nuxeo</h3>
<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=141805745&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=Nuxeo">Nuxeo</a>, the developer of the leading Content Services Platform, is reinventing <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=1356444015&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2Fproducts%2Fenterprise-content-management%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=enterprise+content+management">enterprise content management</a> (ECM) and <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=3747046695&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2Fproducts%2Fdigital-asset-management%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=digital+asset+management">digital asset management</a> (DAM). Nuxeo makes it easy to build smart content applications that enhance customer experiences, improve decision making, and accelerate products to market. Its cloud-native, low-code platform has been deployed by large enterprises worldwide. Customers like Electronic Arts, TBWA, ABN AMRO, and CVS have used Nuxeo's technology to transform the way they do business. Founded in 2000, the company is based in New York with offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Learn more at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3043355-1&amp;h=1092214406&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuxeo.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRNewswire%26utm_medium%3Dpress%2520release%26utm_campaign%3Dhitrust&amp;a=www.nuxeo.com">www.nuxeo.com</a>.
<h3>About Hyland</h3>
<a href="https://www.hyland.com/">Hyland</a> is an enterprise content management (ECM) software platform, combining integrated document management, business process management, and records management in a single application. Hyland software allows organizations to manage, control, and share digital content with employees, business partners, customers, and other constituencies. Learn more at <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en">www.hyland.com</a>

Hyland Enters Agreement to Acquire Nuxeo

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