When Zendesk announced it had been acquired by a consortium of private equity firms on Friday for $10.2 billion, it seemed a sudden and jarring end for a company that had once pioneered customer service in the cloud, especially since the organization had recently vowed to stay independent.
But there had been a lot going on with Zendesk leading up to Friday’s announcement, including a battle with activist investor Jana Partners over a number of issues. For starters, the company turned down a $17 billion offer in February, which you will note is substantially higher than the final selling price, and Jana was not happy with that outcome
At the time, however, Zendesk concluded it was worth far more. A TechCrunch analysis concurred. But the market has shifted dramatically in the months since, and the company’s value plunged.
“It does feel like something dramatic needed to happen to change the trajectory they’ve been on the last few years, and maybe this is it.” Brent Leary, principal analyst at CRM Essentials
If that weren’t e …
