Five thoughts on the Sitecore buy-out

This morning brought news that Sweden-based Private Equity firm EQT has taken a majority stake in Web CMS vendor Sitecore, at a valuation north of €1bn, making the firm officially a "Eunicorn."

RSG's Take

1. This deal puts to bed the absurd rumors that Microsoft would acquire Sitecore (would have been a very poor match).  Microsoft might still make a move to buy a true cloud WCM, though we still doubt it in the near term.

2. There is a lot of private investor interest in Web Content & Experience Management (WCM) right now. I think it's because -- even though the marketplace is now 20+ years old -- there's still a lot of room for growth and innovation in this segment.  It would not surprise us if Sitecore itself continued to raise additional funds.

3. A lot of this external funding to WCM players will go to a kind of "cloud arms race," as vendors figure out new models for better delivering single- and multi-tenant cloud offerings.

4. This deal will probably have a greater impact on channel partners than end-customers.  Sitecore has traditionally been a tech-oriented, partner-friendly firm, and that has proven a winning business model.  But private investor money can get impatient, and so we'll see more amped-up sales and marketing (not germane to you the customer) as well as more pressure on the channel to deliver greater license revenues.  That could be germane to you, particularly given Sitecore's somewhat unique approach to embedding outbound digital marketing services within a complex WCM platform.  A savvy Sitecore customer will carefully meter their additional investments in the platform.

5. Sitecore has spawned many imitators -- not the least of them Episerver -- and continues to face stiff competition.  That's good for you the customer: you have many viable CMS choices out there today. 

For a detailed look at how Sitecore stacks up against its competition, consult our hard-hitting WCM evaluation research.

 


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Gil, Partner, Cancentric Solutions Inc.
iStudio Canada Inc.

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