Pivotal Acquires Marketing Automation Provider MarketFirst
Customer relationship management vendor Pivotal Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire MarketFirst Software, Pivotal said yesterday.Pivotal, Vancouver, will exchange shares of its common stock for all the issued and outstanding securities of privately held MarketFirst, Mountain View, CA. The value of the deal was not disclosed, and it is subject to customary and regulatory closing conditions.
The acquisition will add marketing automation technology to Pivotal's suite of sales and customer service applications targeted at the mid-market. The company previously had relied on partnerships with other vendors, such as E.piphany Inc., to provide this technology.
Separately, Pivotal said it expects its first-quarter revenue to be $12 million to $13 million, with $3 million to $4 million in license revenue. This would be down from $19.1 million in the previous quarter, and from $16 million in the year-earlier quarter.
"We are disappointed with our results this quarter, and we're taking decisive action to improve our profitability," said Pivotal president/CEO Bo Manning. "We are implementing both immediate and long-term initiatives to reduce our cost structure and achieve our stated goal of profitability in the second half of our fiscal year."
