Contact: Ben Kolada
J2 Global continues to diversify its business through M&A, this time with the acquisition of Landslide Technologies. The company’s latest deal, its second in as many weeks, is j2’s first CRM purchase – a stark contrast from its recent M&A plays, which have focused primarily on propping up its managed messaging business at home and abroad.
We’ve previously covered j2’s dealmaking, noting that the company has expanded via M&A from its core fax offering to now include a number of services for small businesses such as email, Web-based collaboration and even marketing. Landslide provides Web-based CRM SaaS, including online, social and mobile CRM applications, to SMBs.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the majority of j2’s transactions have gone off for less than $15m. We see no reason why this acquisition would significantly diverge from this path. The company was likely cautious in its first move into the CRM market, meaning j2 likely paid at or below market valuations. And even with a possible premium given to the business because of its SaaS delivery model, we still doubt that the price was too high, considering an SEC report filed in December 2010 noted that Landslide’s revenue was $1m-5m.