What will Blackbaud buy next?
The Nonprofit Times was quick to follow-up the Convio IPO news by reviewing some of the online chatter about what Blackbaud plans to do next.
When a company spends $90 million in two years, it tends to get tongues wagging. And there has been no shortage of opinions in the nonprofit technology community regarding the impact of the $24.8 million acquisition of online donor management and advocacy tool eTapestry by software giant Blackbaud.I've made it clear, if they are interested in buying this website, they wouldn't need to spend all that cash. If you were running the ship at Blackbaud, what/who would you buy next? Do they make a purchase based on what they feel would make their company stronger? Do they make a defensive play based on what Convio is doing? Will they buy DonorPerfect?
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Blackbaud might not be finished. In public announcements and filings, the firm disclosed it had established a credit line of $75 million. The acquisition of eTapestry leaves another $50 million.
I posted a couple weeks ago that there were rumors Oracle could be considering an acquisition of Blackbaud. I've been told that isn't going to happen, but who knows?
What about Kintera? Given the fact that the stock has fallen more than 80% from its high, it seems like a bargain now... or are others just waiting for Kintera to go bankrupt?
2 comments:
If their priorities are in order they smarten up and offer to buy the Blackbaud User Society
Unlike you, I am not cheap.
xD
This type of high-finance speculation is a little beyond my non-MBA training, but I have been intrigued by the recent acquisitions. It seems that Blackbaud, and Convio before it, need some technology to fill in some holes, but primarily they're buying customers -- market share. Kintera would probably be a good fit, since it has both accounting and web customers.
Rick Christ
www.NPAdvisors.com
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