You have probably read the news about Marketo’s acquisition by Vista Equity Partners. As an early adopter and Marketo Gold Partner, I have been following their story since the very early days and am particularly excited about this new announcement. I was first introduced to Marketo at Dreamforce 2007, became customer #163 in 2008, and spoke at every Marketo Summit until 2015. Considering my professional background as a stock trader, I am personally and professionally thrilled about this acquisition. I watched their business and customer base grow through innovations, acquisitions and expansion, and built a successful consulting firm serving Marketo clients based on my experience. Marketo’s journey has been interesting to watch – from a small startup, to IPO, and finally their acquisition.

But setting aside my inner geek, what does Marketo’s acquisition really mean for clients and partners? 

I trust their statement “Marketo’s mission and vision remain unchanged, and Marketo will continue its commitments to and passion for its customers and partners.”, and strongly believe that there will be no impact in the foreseeable future. It will take months to finalize the acquisition and for Vista to implement their operating model.

Here are my observations and predictions:

  • Marketo remains independent from large software groups. This is good news! Compared to other marketing automation vendors like Eloqua and ExactTarget, Marketo will have to face more pressure to innovate to stay competitive. I expect a lot to come in the future!
  • Becoming a privately owned company, Marketo will again be able to focus on long-term value creation, as opposed to pleasing Wall Street on a quarterly basis. This means more time ironing out the next MarTech innovations, rather than pushing half-baked ideas.
  • Vista will implement a management operation framework and organizational structure, that will turn the startup chaos into a well-oiled machine.
  • Vista will strengthen the partner ecosystem and continue to leverage the partner network to fuel their sales pipeline and growth.

As for Perkuto, we will continue to provide state of the art services to our clients and we are thrilled to see Marketo move to the next stage with a strong partner like Vista Equity Partners. For the official details, read Marketo press release and Marketo Vista FAQs