InsightSoftware, the parent company of embedded analytics vendor Logi Analytics, on Thursday completed the acquisition of Exago, also a specialist in embedded analytics, and plans to fold Exago into Logi.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
InsightSoftware, an ERP vendor founded in 2000 and based in Raleigh, N.C., acquired Logi in April. Since then, the acquisition of Exago -- in essence made by Logi but technically made through InsightSoftware -- is the second Logi has executed.
Eight days after being acquired by InsightSoftware, Logi, founded in 2000 and based in McLean, Va., acquired Izenda, yet another specialist in embedded analytics.
Exago, founded in 2006 and based in Shelton, Conn., offers a platform that enables customers to embed business intelligence into SaaS, web-based and on-premises applications.
New capabilities and customers
Adding Exago to Logi will bring both more analytics capabilities and expand Logi's customer reach, according to Charles Caldwell, Logi's vice president of product management.
"Exago, much like us, has been focused on embedded analytics, and they bring some very interesting capabilities to the portfolio," Caldwell said. "They also bring a great customer base. But for us, what's super important is what the acquiring company brings, and we're excited to bring global support and global R&D capabilities to the Exago customer base. We see it as a really great match."
An organization's event sales data is displayed on a sample Logi Analytics dashboard.
Specific capabilities Exago adds to Logi's platform include pixel-perfect reporting features and the ability to embed self-service reporting, Caldwell added.
Regarding the acquisition process now that Logi is a subsidiary of InsightSoftware, Caldwell noted that Logi identifies acquisition targets and does all preparation for the acquisition, while InsightSoftware gives approval and provides funding.
"Our M&A process is driven by our roadmap," he said. "The candidate list is driven off our company strategy. We look for use cases that help us expand our capabilities or use cases that expand our overall value proposition.
We look for use cases that help us expand our capabilities or use cases that expand our overall value proposition. What InsightSoftware has brought for us is an amazing business development capability and access to capital.
Charles CaldwellVice president of product management, Logi Analytics
"What InsightSoftware has brought for us is an amazing business development capability and access to capital," Caldwell continued. "They've got a bigger checkbook than I have."
Izenda's platform is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, and includes no-code tools that connect to databases and web services and natural language processing capabilities to enable users to explore, manipulate and visualize their data.
And while Caldwell noted that Exago will add capabilities in addition to new customer opportunities, David Menninger, an analyst at Ventana Research, theorized that the acquisition of Exago is likely more about adding customers.
Exago's customers include Walmart, Deloitte, Lockheed Martin, Datto, UKG, Transactis-Mastercard, DealerSocket, Vivify Health and KPMG.
"This acquisition … may be more about growing the customer base and revenue streams along with creating economies of scale," Menninger said. "If you look at the Exago customer list, it includes some impressive names. There may be some additional product capabilities, but it appears there is a lot of overlap with the existing portfolio."
He added that Logi's acquisitions of Izenda and Exago so soon after itself being acquired by InsightSoftware speak well for the way Logi is viewed by its new parent company.
InsightSoftware would likely not tolerate Logi's aggressiveness, while aimed at growing the company's capabilities and customer reach, if Logi weren't in a strong financial position with a solid business plan and didn't offer a respected platform.
"I think you need to consider Logi's aggressiveness in a larger context -- the context of Logi's role within InsightSoftware," Menninger said. "For a company to be acquired and to get approval to continue to acquire other companies is usually an endorsement by the investors that they think the company/division is on the right track."
More acquisitions to come
While Logi has been aggressive since its own acquisition by adding two fellow embedded analytics vendors to its portfolio, Caldwell said that Logi is not done buying other vendors.
InsightSoftware has a history of acquiring other companies -- it has made about 20 acquisitions in just the last three years -- and in July secured an $800 million investment from global investment firm Hg that could be used to fuel further acquisitions. And now that Logi has access to some of InsightSoftware's capital, it too plans to be an aggressive acquirer.
"You should expect to see us continue," Caldwell. "We're focused on internal innovation but also using M&A to accelerate that."
Logi's acquisition of Exago is the third significant acquisition made by an analytics vendor in the last week and continues an ongoing consolidation trend that gained momentum in spring 2018.
Last week, Vista Equity Partners, parent company of Tibco, acquired robotic process automation vendor Blue Prism for $1.5 billion and plans to roll Blue Prism into Tibco in a deal that mirrors Logi's acquisitions through its parent company. Meanwhile, Qlik acquired automated machine learning vendor Big Squid for an undisclosed amount.
Earlier in 2021, ThoughtSpot purchased SeekWell and Diyotta, and in late 2020 Qlik bought Blendr.io and Tibco acquired IBI (formerly Information Builders). The years 2018 and 2019 also saw a lot of merger and acquisition activity, and included Salesforce's $15.7 billion acquisition of Tableau.
