What happens when your vendor is acquired

A lot of my customers know firsthand what happens when their sotware vendor gets acquired… for some its welcome news, for others, not so much.

In all my time working for the vendor, every client has always been interested in knowing the real scoop on any announced acquisitions.  Usually, we have ad-hoc meetings to ease everybody’s minds.

But then you see people begin to leave and the product roadmap changes.  Things go on hold (or so it seems) while the newly merged company tries to sort things out. Stories change, your key contact leaves and things become different.

The folks at HRchitect just posted an interesting blog about Taleo’s acquisition of Vurv.  It got me thinking about the recent acquisitions of Kronos and Workbrain also.  I can clearly see the logic behind a number 1 player acquiring the new and growing number 2 player.  It’s as classic Sun Tzu teaching.

In fact, I always believed that Kronos should acquire Workbrain.  But alas, I knew that wouldn’t happen, not because it would be a bad business decision, but because there were personalities at play and they always cloud good business decisions. It’s hard to say which company is better off now, or which company’s clients for that matter.

But I’d be interested to hear from others on what they think and what your expereince has been with your “new” vendor.