这家连销售都不要的公司为什么要砸4.25亿美元收购一家小公司？
最近几天大家都被微信小程序给刷屏了，以至于昨天爆出的一则4.25亿美元的收购案也没什么泛起什么涟漪。我说的是前年上市的澳洲SaaS公司Atlassian对项目管理/团队协作工具Trello的收购。作为一家很注重控制开支的公司，为什么Atlassian舍得砸这么多钱在小小的Trello身上呢？
成立于2002年的Atlassian是一家稳扎稳打的面向企业提供项目管理服务的SasS公司。该公司专门开发软件工具，帮助企业工作人员协同工作，让企业员工在任何地方都能随意存储并访问文件。旗下产品包括团队工作计划和项目管理软件 JIRA，企业知识管理与协同软件Confluence，类似 Slack 的内部聊天/协作HipChat、代码库管理Bitbucket以及以及JIRA 服务台等。在经营14年之后，Atlassian成功于2015年上市，被誉为当年最成功的技术IPO之一。股票在上市首日即上涨了32%，市值达57.8亿美元。
Atlassian是飞轮型SaaS公司的最佳代表之一。它的销售效率极佳，与一般SaaS公司前几年往往将一半以上的收入用于营销方面，但上市当年上半年Atlassian在市场营销上花费为6790万美元，只占总收入（3.195亿美元）的21%。其奥秘是没有销售队伍，依靠口碑宣传和病毒式营销。所以在这种成本控制下，Atlassian的盈利水平很高。
当然Trello也是非常优秀的团队协作工具，其看板式的任务管理现在已经被很多的项目管理软件效仿。这款由著名软件工程师 Joel Spolsky开发的团队协作平台，当年（2011年）在TechCrunch Disrupt大会上正式发布在不到3小时的时间内，就已经积累了5000多用户。而现在Trello的用户数已经超过了1900万，日活用户已超 100 万。
在项目管理工具评测网站Project Management Zone的三个细分排名当中，Trello上榜了其中两个。在项目规划工具排名中，Trello位列第4（前3为微软Project、Atlassian的JIRA以及办公套件Zoho）；在项目协作工具排名中，Trello位列第三（其它4个依次为微软SharePoint、G Suite、Basecamp以及IBM Notes）。以Trello的小身躯能够跟微软、Google、IBM等巨头挤到一起，这样的成绩的确不错了。
当然，Atlassian的JIRA也相当不错，在Project Management Zone的所有3个细分排名中也挤进了两个排行榜，分别是项目规划类排名第三以及问题管理工具类排名第二。JIRA和Trello无论在客户或者功能方面都没有太多的重叠，在收购了Trello之后，Atlassian在项目管理这一类别的解决方案将变得更加完整，这无疑会提高它在企业客户当中的竞争力。
当然，也许有人会质疑Trello虽然不错但是它真的值4.25亿美元吗？451 Research 的分析师Melissa Incera认为我们应该向前看。按照这家机构的预测，商业沟通与协作软件市场的规模将会从2016年的150亿美元增长到2020年的280亿美元。再加上Trello优异的增长速率以及双方共同的早日实现1亿月活用户的目标,这个价格在今后也许并不算太高。
反过来，对Trello的高价收购正好为资本效率提供了一个很好的研究案例。到目前为止，Trello的融资额仅为1000万美元左右而且仅进行过一轮融资，但他们就靠着这点钱把团队很快发展到了100人以上，用户群扩展到1900万。其商业模式为三级的免费增值模式，企业规模越大收费越高。从VC的角度测算的话，Trello在不到3年的时间内就为投资者创造了8.5倍（而且大部分都是现金形式）的退出，这样的内部收益率可谓很高了。相对于Asana、Wunderlist等同类产品，Trello的资本效率非常高效。
Trello的产品特点也值得很多同行借鉴。或者说，它的一些做法已经成为主流。首先是Trello的跨平台结构，似乎它一开始采取的是web优先，移动响应式的跨平台支持，然后再发布iOS版。此外，Trello类似Pinterest式的看板交互模式在移动端看起来就像一张张卡片，非常适合展示。最后，Trello团队还悄悄地集成了很多存储和业务流程方面的东西到服务里面，通过免费提供部分集成来吸引用户，再对额外的一些进行收费，这也是很聪明的做法。虽然Trello的集成没有Slack那么多，但是已经足以让客户满意，再说集成数量多未必个个都有用的。
此外，这桩收购也体现了IT消费化的趋势。跟Slack、Asana、Wunderlist等成功的面向专业消费者设计的产品一样，Trello的设计既提供了轻量级的用户体验，又提供了足够的基础设施和能力，使得大型团队可以跨众多平台进行协作。Trello给人的感觉纯粹就像是一款消费者产品，尽管Google、Facebook等也在做这方面的尝试，但前者要做得好得多、干净得多。
收购案反映出来的最后一个趋势是企业SaaS的并购整合在加强。这些年来，我们目睹了企业SaaS的各种并购案的发生。这其中既有像Salesforce这样的巨头不断地鲸吞新产品，也有一些私募股权打次购买市值不大的上市公司。这些都反映出大型公司面临着越来越大的扩张压力。像Slack、Facebook @ Work或者 Microsoft Teams这样的协作产品要么在不断壮大，要么似乎有着无限的资金支持，在这种情况下，类似Atlassian这样的新晋既有者需要不断储备实力、做好长期斗争的准备。选择有潜力的初创企业是一举两得的做法（既消灭一个潜在对手又增强了自己的实力，这个价格也许也有先下手为强的意思）。著名VC Fred Wilson前几天就预测了这一点：
在传统企业软件公司（如Oracle）、成功SaaS公司（如Workday）以及私募股权机构三股势力都在寻求增加额外业务线以及提高经常性订购收入流的作用下，SaaS板块将会继续整合。
来源：36氪，作者：boxi，如若转载，请注明出处：http://36kr.com/p/5061693.html
Atlassian
2017年01月11日
Atlassian
Atlassian + Trello: changing the way teams work，Atlassian4.25亿美金收购Trello！
本次交易绝大多数以现金(3.6亿美元)交易,剩余的用以支付限制的股票和期权。此次收购预计将在2017年3月31日之前完成。
When we founded Atlassian 15 years ago, it seemed obvious to us that software could help teams work better together. But in those days most software companies were focused on developing for personal productivity. We felt that using tools designed for individuals to accomplish teamwork is a bit like using scissors to mow your lawn. You can do it, but it’s a lot harder than it needs to be. That’s why we focused on building for teams from day one.
Fast forward to today and there are still surprisingly few companies building software for teams. One company that has had breakout success is Trello. Over the past five years, Trello has grown to over 19 million registered users by solving an important problem: capturing and adding structure to fluid, fast-forming work.
Trello’s pioneering use of an intuitive visual system has been embraced by all kinds of teams to do everything from managing marketing campaigns to tracking action items from team meetings. Organizations in nearly every country and as varied as the Red Cross and Google have adopted Trello to get work done.
Today, I am thrilled to announce that we have entered into an agreement to acquire Trello and add their amazing product to our growing family.
Choosing the right tool for your team
Atlassian’s mission is to unleash the potential in every team. That’s a big mission. In Trello we found a group that is as dedicated to helping teams get stuff done as we are. In fact, we have identical milestones towards achieving our missions: for our tools to be used by 100M people.
Atlassian tools are built to help all teams organize, discuss and complete their work. By adding Trello to the Atlassian family, we’re giving teams more choice in the tools they use to support the way that they want to work.
Trello will become an important part of the Atlassian portfolio, offering a fun new way for teams to organize the often messy range of information that feeds into great teamwork. Its card system is intuitive, easy to use, and instantly familiar, which has made it extremely popular with teams across marketing, legal, HR, sales and beyond.
One of Trello’s strengths is its flexibility. You control how the board looks and operates so you can mold it to how your team works, and track progress in stages that reflect your processes. You can take this flexibility a step further by integrating the tools you already use with Trello as Power-Ups that extend the functionality of the boards to meet your team’s unique needs.
The JIRA family of products will continue providing purpose-built experiences such as JIRA Software, the #1 tool for agile software teams; JIRA Service desk, a beautifully simple service desk solution for IT and business teams; and JIRA Core for project and process management.
JIRA tools excel at work that benefits from a well-defined, traceable, and repeatable process, whilst Confluence is great for teams creating and collaborating on documents and rich content. Trello perfectly fills a gap between the structured workflows of JIRA and the free-form collaboration of Confluence and will give teams the option to find the right Atlassian tool for the type of work they need to complete. Keep an eye out for integrations between these products in the near future.
What happens now
We’re thrilled to welcome the talented Trello team to Atlassian and look forward to working with them to change the way teams work together. Deep investments in R&D have long been a cornerstone of Atlassian’s business and we will continue that tradition with Trello.
If you currently use Trello as either a free or paid user, you can rest assured that we will continue to offer Trello as a standalone service. We’ll be working with their product team to help them accelerate development efforts. If you are an Atlassian user, I encourage you to set up an account on Trello and check out how it might work for your team.
Teams have always been the critical element of successful organizations. We’re excited about the opportunities that lie ahead in unleashing the potential of every team.
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