Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) has announced it has acquired FutureSimple Inc., the company behind Base. Base is known for building modern, easy-to-use sales force automation software designed to help salespeople do their jobs more effectively. Zendesk will invest in Base’s ongoing market growth and product development, focusing on existing customers and delivering products for smaller, fast-growing sales teams, expanding to larger organizations over time.
“Base is a natural fit with Zendesk because we both share a passion for designing beautiful products built for the people who actually use them,” said Mikkel Svane, founder and CEO, Zendesk. “We want to do for sales what Zendesk has already done for customer service: give salespeople tools built around them and the customers they serve.”
Founded in 2009, Base is a modern sales solution that provides integrated tools for communication, lead scoring, reporting and more. The company is widely recognized by customers and industry analysts for its leading mobile app and a user-friendly experience. Gartner has positioned Base as a Visionary in the July 2018 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation1.
Base and Zendesk last year launched an integration between their products, bringing together support and sales information about customers. Among the companies using it is home loan education platform Mortgage Coach. Its director of IT and QA support services called the integration seamless and said it ultimately saved the team countless hours of data duplication.
While legacy sales force automation tools are designed around rigid management processes that discourage salespeople from using them, Base gives sales teams the information and context they need to be effective and successful with prospects and customers. The result is a tool that helps salespeople work and sell more easily.
“Legacy sales tools were never built for the people actually using them. Our core philosophy in building Base, was to create a world-class experience for sales professionals to help them close more deals,” said Uzi Shmilovici, founder and CEO, Base. “Just like Zendesk set out to improve the customer experience, we set out to dramatically improve the sales experience for 30 million sales professionals worldwide. We are thrilled to be joining Zendesk in building the future of customer experience software.”
Currently serving over 5,000 customers globally across industries, Base has offices in San Francisco and Krakow, Poland. All of Base’s customers will continue to receive support and services, and the Base team will all be offered roles at Zendesk. Matt Price, formerly Zendesk’s senior vice president, product portfolio, will lead a team dedicated to growing Base across product and go-to-market.
“The Base team is perfectly suited to join Zendesk in our mission to deliver helpful, easy to use, flexible and scalable products focused on the customer,” said Matt Price, senior vice president and general manager, Base. “Together we will build deeper integrations with our products so sales and service can more easily collaborate.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. For the year ending December 31, 2018, the acquisition is not estimated to have a significant impact on Zendesk’s revenue and is expected to be dilutive to GAAP and Non-GAAP operating margin and earnings per share. These estimates reflect a reduction relating to fair value adjustments to acquired deferred revenue. Zendesk will provide further detail on the actual and expected impact of the acquisition on its results of operations for the year ending December 31, 2018 when it releases financial results for the quarter ending September 30, 2018.
