Upland Software Acquires BlueVenn

Upland Software, Inc., announced that it has acquired BlueVenn, a leading cloud-based customer data platform (CDP). With BlueVenn, Upland customers can now securely unify their consumer data, unlocking the insights needed to create omnichannel digital engagement strategies to drive their business forward, all from a single vendor.

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“BlueVenn is a highly strategic acquisition and a big step forward for Upland in the Customer Experience (CX) category”

“BlueVenn is a highly strategic acquisition and a big step forward for Upland in the Customer Experience (CX) category,” said Jack McDonald, chairman and CEO of Upland. “Centralizing customer data has been a persistent challenge for enterprises since today’s digital consumer uses text, email, mobile applications, and websites to interact with the brands, products, and services they love. BlueVenn will sit at the center of our Customer Experience Management (CXM) offering and deliver a single view of the customer that will drive better engagement across every digital channel.”

BlueVenn currently provides its global customer base, which includes among many others Gannett, Subaru UK, and The American Automobile Association, with the ability to securely access all of their online and offline consumer data sources – from in-store to email to mobile – in one centralized location. This unified view unlocks unique insights into crucial buying behaviors and makes them actionable, which allows companies to optimize omnichannel marketing campaign performance. All while ensuring consumer information is kept secure and compliant with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.

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“As our dealership network grew, each one respectively managing their consumer information, we began noticing discrepancies in our data. Consumers either moved or were interested in different vehicle types, and we had no way to track and verify that information, which meant we were losing critical moments to engage,” said Andrew Edmiston, managing director of Subaru UK. “With BlueVenn, we were able to unify our consumer database across our dealerships and then segment that information to create a stronger national marketing engagement strategy, which tripled our test drives and ultimately doubled our sales.”

With a unified consumer database sitting at the center of Upland’s CXM product suite, customers will have the power to reach their consumers where they are, driving engagement and conversions whether on email, mobile application, SMS, or online.

“Over the last seven years, BlueVenn and Upland have built a very successful partnership, integrating our technologies to provide incredible value to our mutual customers. By now joining Upland, we are helping marketers around the globe elevate their customer engagement capabilities,” said Steve Klin, CEO of BlueVenn. “I’m proud of what the BlueVenn team has built and look forward to the next evolution of this market at Upland.”

The purchase price paid for BlueVenn was $51.9 million in cash at closing (net of cash acquired), paid out of cash on hand, and a $2.4 million cash holdback payable in twelve months (subject to indemnification claims). The foregoing excludes any potential future earn-out payments tied to additional performance based goals. Upland expects the acquisition to generate annual revenue of approximately $15.5 million, of which approximately $13.2 million is recurring, and will be subject to reductions for deferred revenue discount as a result of GAAP purchase accounting, estimated at $3.4 million for the remainder of 2021. The price paid for the acquisition is within Upland’s target range of 5-8x pro forma Adjusted EBITDA and it is expected that BlueVenn will generate at least $6.8 million in Adjusted EBITDA annually once fully integrated. The acquisition will be immediately accretive to Upland’s Adjusted EBITDA per share although incremental contributions to Adjusted EBITDA in March and the second quarter of 2021 will be minimal as the acquisition transforms into model.

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