Talent Acquisition News

 

FEBRUARY 2020 – Talent Acquisition News, Part 2

 

 

February certainly was a month, wasn’t it? After a (by comparison) quiet start, the second month of 2020 tore through the industry. If you’re wondering what that is, let’s start with news of the current consolidation trend.

 

Kronos and Ultimate Software

First up, we saw Kronos and Ultimate Software enter into a definitive merger agreement. While the move didn’t surprise anyone, with the two companies both controlled by Hellman & Friedman LLC, the timing certainly did. Most analysts and influencer types expected to see the companies combine in 2021 or 2022 at the earliest. Moving forward, the entity will create a “People Inspired” company, sharing joint headquarters in Massachusetts and Florida. Combined, the company has a sizable global presence, with more than 12,000 employees worldwide, and a $22 billion enterprise valuation.

 

Cornerstone acquires Saba

Not to be outdone, Cornerstone announced its plan to acquire Saba in a cash and stock transaction deal worth somewhere just under the $1.4B mark. The slightly smaller deal will result in a combined company with more than 75 million users, over 7000 clients, and reportedly $818M in annual recurring revenue. As far as the industry goes, analyst Albert Pang of Apps Run the World offered a preview of what the market will look like following these two deals alone. And it’s still Q1!

 

Randstad

Randstad formed the Randstad Enterprise Group (REG), a talent advisory infrastructure that leverages the company’s services to build total talent models for clients. The offering brings together Randstad’s global strategic accounts teams with the sales and solution design functions of its RPO and MSP arm, Randstad Sourceright. The group will deliver an entirely new experience for clients, across six functional areas, which include customer and talent intelligence, marketing and communications, enterprise solution design and bids, talent marketing and global pursuit operations.

 

iCIMS has a new CEO

Meanwhile, iCIMS introduced its new CEO, Steve Lucas, a member of the company’s board for the past year. He comes to iCIMS from Marketo, where he oversaw its sale to Adobe back in 2018. His bio includes leadership roles across SAP and Salesforce, and “a broad range of GTM, operations, R&D, sales, services, and technology market expertise.” Lucas replaces iCIMS founder and former CEO Colin Day, who announced his departure last fall and is now serving as Chairman.

 

Deloitte 2020 Workplace Flexibility Survey

Shifting gears from vendors to workers, Deloitte released new survey findings of flexible work options. Says the 2020 Workplace Flexibility Survey, “most professionals take advantage of flexible work options despite perceived potential consequences to professional growth.” If you’re wondering why that’s the case, it comes down to the good outweighs the bad. Or, so indicates the 94 percent of respondents who say they would benefit from work flexibility. As a result, becoming less stressed, improving their mental health, and finding better integration of their work and personal life.

 

Capital Investments, Mergers, & Acquisitions

  • In other M&A news, the performance management platform Betterworks acquired Hyphen. Hyphen is a continuous employee listening and engagement solution. Hyphen employees will join the Betterworks team, and the Hyphen product will incorporate into the Betterworks Engage offering.
  • On the funding front, online learning platform Udemy raised $50M from a single investor, Benesse Holdings. This investment came following a $2B pre-money valuation. The company plans to use the round to improve its course offerings, grow its enterprise relationships, and expand its global reach.
  • Female-led digital health company Maven closed $45M in Series C funding. They closed with participation from existing investors as well as individual investors Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, Mindy Kaling, and Anne Wojcicki. Yes, as in that Witherspoon, Portman, Kaling, and Wojcicki.
  • Israeli HR tech startup Actiview announced $10M in Series A funding. The company develops virtual reality and machine learning-powered assessment solutions. Already operating in 10 countries worldwide and recently teaming up with international university INSEAD, Actiview will use the funds to enter additional markets.
  • A platform that allows users to explore any company’s organizational chart known as The Org completed an $8.5M Series-A financing round. The funding occurred following a previously unannounced seed round of $2.5M. The Org reports a growing database of over 16,000 org charts created through research and crowdsourcing.

 

Upcoming Events & Conferences for March

 

Other recent highlights:

  • GoCoach worked with Unicon on enhancements intended to improve personalized learning and coaching.
  • AllyO promoted a 3.3x increase in Annual Recurring Revenue, helping drive the company to more than 11x two-year growth.
  • Indeed launched Indeed Hiring Events to help employers reduce costs and speed up high-volume hiring.
  • Hourly workforce platform Snagajob launched its Shifts solution in the Orlando, Florida area.
  • Empathic Workplace and Mursion partnered to create a VR platform to foster empathy and understanding in executives, managers, and employees.

 

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Authors
Noel Cocca

CEO/Founder RecruitingDaily and avid skier, coach and avid father of two trying to keep up with my altruistic wife. Producing at the sweet spot talent acquisition to create great content for the living breathing human beings in recruiting and hiring. I try to ease the biggest to smallest problems from start-ups to enterprise. Founder of RecruitingDaily and our merry band of rabble-rousers.