Zendesk announced today that it had acquired Montpelier-based BIME Analytics for $45 Million in an all-cash acquisition. Founded by Rachel Delacour, BIME opened its first US office last year in Kansas City after raising €3 Million from Alven Capital in 2013. The acquisition will allow Zendesk, which already offers its cloud-based customer service platform enterprise clients around the world, to extend a BI offer to them as well.
Zendesk’s stock rose early on Tuesday in the wake of the announcement; although the stock has since corrected back (source: Marketwatch).
In the wake of news countering the idea that French startups are attractive to US-based startups, it’s nice to see that acquisitions are still happening (dozens this year alone), and that the startups that are being valued in France line up with where France has seen itself excel in the past. BIME had a particularly high bar that was set by its predecessor, Business Objects (acquired by SAP in 2007 for $6.7 Billion – the highest French tech acquisition to date) – and BIME managed to reinvent the BI offer in the cloud, no small feat indeed.