Featured Stories
Profitable from Day One : How a Bootstrapped SaaS Found a Successful Exit
“My key priority was securing a buyer capable of both shaping a long-term strategic vision for DropFunnels and seamlessly transitioning ownership. The team at FE International had already identified the perfect buyer within their extensive network, ensuring a perfect match for the company’s future growth. ”
Access our latest Market Reports
Important Shopify and Amazon Platform Updates, Chargebee Integrates with Softrax: Newsletter March 15, 2019
Shopify merchants were this week notified of a platform-wide update mandating that all customer data collected by third-parties on the merchant’s behalf be sent back to Shopify. Beginning immediately, checkout and payment processing information must go through Shopify unless otherwise authorized in writing, and developers will no longer be able to create multiple platforms offering the same services. Shopify is allowing a 60-day window to enact the above updates.
FE International Releases 2019 M&A Market Report, CNBC Reports Heightened Cloud Investment Activity, Salesforce and Alphabet Back GoCardless: Newsletter March 8, 2019
We are pleased to share our 2019 Technology M&A Outlook. In this in-depth report, we review the record M&A market activity seen in 2018 and provide a data-backed forecast for the industry in the upcoming year for SaaS, e-commerce and content business owners. We have also shared detailes of our FY’18 performance and some acquisitions that we made during the year which will shape the way business owners and investors in the space complete M&A acquisitions in 2019 and beyond!
Technology M&A Outlook 2019
At the start of each year, FE International reflects on the past 12 months to review market trends, predict future developments, and enhance its services and client advice. Despite operating in a niche within the technology M&A industry, analyzing the broader market helps identify trends and gauge confidence in the sector.
Amazon Launches Project Zero, SaaS Mag Official Release, Mirakl Raises $70 million: Newsletter March 1, 2019
Amazon has this week announced Project Zero, a new initiative allowing independent brands to remove counterfeit versions of their products from the platform. Project Zero has come as Amazon’s solution to a major issue that arose for sellers under the e-commerce giant’s previous attempts to prevent counterfeit sales, which had led to false claims wrongly shutting down faultless sellers. E-commerce stores with an Amazon presence should take advantage of the program to proactively flag fraudulent versions of their products.
Amazon Revokes NY HQ2, AWS Announces Bare Metal IaaS, Freshworks Launches High Velocity Sales Summit: Newsletter February 15, 2019
Amazon has this week announced it has reversed plans to open an HQ2 in New York. Pushback from local politicians involving tax incentives and Amazon’s anti-unionization policies ultimately led the e-commerce giant to contain its expansion to Northern Virginia and Nashville. The decision comes just two weeks after Amazon shared a record-breaking year-on-year operating profit increase of 80% to $3.8 billion in Q4.
Slack Files for IPO, Spotify Acquires Gimlet and Anchor, Facebook Restricted by German Antitrust Watchdog: Newsletter February 8, 2019
Slack Files for IPO, Spotify Acquires Gimlet and Anchor, Facebook Restricted by German Antitrust Watchdog: Newsletter February 8, 2019
Amazon Reports Q4’18 Earnings, Google Fined by NDPC, Cloud Firestore Released from Beta: Newsletter February 1, 2019
Amazon reported better than expected performance in its Q4’18 earnings results this week. The e-commerce giant posted $72.4 billion in revenue for the holiday season, slightly beating analyst estimates and 19.8% above Q4’17 net sales. While the company did not report the exact number of net Prime signups, the holiday season saw “tens of millions of customers” across the globe start Prime free trials or activate paid memberships. Amazon also reported that more than 50% of the products sold on the platform came from SMBs (whose sales are reportedly growing faster than Amazon’s own platform sales) with over 200,000 stores surpassing $100,000 in sales on their Amazon store in 2018.
BigCommerce Migrates to Google Cloud Platform, January SaaS News Roundup, Microsoft Acquires Citus Data: Newsletter January 25, 2019
BigCommerce has announced this week the migration of its infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform. The Austin-based SaaS e-commerce platform reportedly made the move to improve international customer support as well as the speed of its service, a win for Google as the race for cloud platform market domination grows increasingly competitive. BigCommerce was utilizing traditional managed hosting and hybrid cloud in both IBM’s SoftLayer and AWS prior to the recent move, which was motivated by anti-Amazon sentiment among BigCommerce’s customer base, as well as Google’s superior network performance.
MasterCard Clarifies Subscription Payments Update, SaaS Mag Reviews APAC Market and AWS Launches Backup: Newsletter January 18, 2019
MasterCard this week clarified that they will not require SaaS and subscription software merchants to request re-authorization from customers before automatically charging recurring payments once a free trial has ended. MasterCard’s original announcement called into question whether the new policy would apply to SaaS subscriptions, but the credit card giant later updated the release to indicate that this policy will apply to merchants of physical products only. Subscription retail merchants will have to notify customers via text or email stating the subscription cost, payment date and merchant name, upon the free trial ending. This authorization will be necessary even for companies which require users to opt-in to recurring charges upon free trial signup.
