Salesforce.com Acquires Etacts to Expand CRM Offering
Salesforce.com has long been recognized as a solid leader in the hosted CRM space. Now, the company is seeking to expand its already rich CRM portfolio with the acquisition of Etacts, a Y-Combinator startup focused on the contact management space.
An e-mail contact manager, Etacts works as a plug-in for Google’s Gmail and Web application. When implemented, the Etacts plug-in scans e-mail messages to determine which contacts are the most important. The plug-in then reminds users to keep in touch with these people and to respond to e-mail messages sent from these key contacts.
Etacts stopped accepting new users and plans to cease operations entirely within the next few weeks as Salesforce takes over complete management of the system. The founders announced on the Etacts homepage that they have decided to pursue other opportunities and will shut down all service on January 31, 2011.
The startup found much of its investing in a list of successful entrepreneurs and angels, including Ron Conway, YouTube founder Jawed Karim, Delicious founder Joshua Schacter and more.
This match-up is the perfect combination between CRM market leader Salesforce.com and Etacts as Salesforce offers a value proposition to clients that is based on its ability to drive effective customer relationship management. Efficient contact management and follow-up are essential in such a platform, extending the value of the Salesforce offering with this plug-in.
The financial terms of this deal have not been disclosed and it is still unclear as to how Salesforce.com will integrate this technology into its platform. This acquisition comes on the heels of another powerful move in the industry. Salesforce.com recently announced its intention to acquire Heroku for roughly $212 million in cash. This transaction is expected to help the company push forward in the social networking space.
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