Salesforce Buys Israel-Created ClickSoftware for $1.35B

Management giant Salesforce on Wednesday night announced it was acquiring ClickSoftware, a service management software firm with deep roots in Israel. Salesforce will pay $1.35 billion for the company, largely in cash.

ClickSoftware produces systems that allow organizations to deploy personnel in an effective and efficient way, ensuring that as little time and as few resources as possible are wasted on projects. Salesforce is the world’s top CRM (customer relationship management) company.

According to Bill Patterson, EVP and GM of Salesforce Service Cloud, “delivering exceptional field service is an increasingly important priority for companies across industries with more than 70% of customer service leaders making significant investments to transform their mobile workforce. Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers. We are thrilled to welcome the ClickSoftware team to Salesforce.”

This is actually ClickSoftware’s second exit. In 2015 it was bought out and taken private by California-based investment firm Francisco Partners Management for $438 million. The company has 800 employees worldwide, 200 of whom are at the company’s Petach Tikvah-based research and development center.

“Our mission has been clear since the beginning — to be the global leader in field service management and deliver significant value to our customers. Joining Salesforce provides a tremendous opportunity to accelerate this vision,” said Mark Cattini, CEO of ClickSoftware. “As a part of Salesforce, we will be able to innovate faster, enabling our joint customers to deliver even better experiences to their customers. This is an exciting milestone, and I look forward to what we’ll deliver to our respective customers as one company after another closes [and become one joint enterprise].”