The streets are rife with rumors these days of E/CTRM software companies closing their doors, buying others, selling off, merging and every other flavor of transaction imaginable. Even in the craziest of times, like after the financial meltdown of 2008, I’ve never gotten the level of calls and emails regarding the future of one company or another that I’ve seen over the last several weeks. As they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
While its unclear what deals or mergers may actually take place in the coming months, it is clear that the market is in the early stages of a consolidation and the roster of players out there today will certainly not be the same when the end of the year rolls around. In fact, if the latest rumors are correct (and I’ve not yet been able to definitively confirm them yet) we may have seen one vendor already exit the market, with another one on their way out very quickly.
For companies that rely on these vendors for their critical systems, this year will probably be a bit unsettling. Too many times users have been left without a good alternative when their chosen vendor goes belly up or has been bought by a larger company and their product has been end of life’d. Hopefully, any transactions, if and when they occur, will be done with an eye to not only enhancing the bottom line of the acquiring companies, but will also ensure that their newly acquired customers have a stable and supported solution for years to come.