Salesforce.com, an enterprise cloud computing company, has acquired Assistly, an instant customer-service help desk built for the cloud, for approximately $50m in cash.
As part of the transaction, Salesforce.com also assumed Assistly’s unvested options and will issue restricted stock units to certain Assistly shareholders.
Salesforce.com said the acquisition of Assistly will help them in democratising enterprise applications in the cloud by putting them at the heart of the new trend of customer service help desk applications.
Assistly allows small companies and emerging businesses set up and deliver social customer-service in less time, and enable companies to manage service cases and engage with customers in real time over a range of channels – including Facebook, Twitter, Web chats, e-mail and phone – all from one, easy-to-use interface.
Salesforce.com executive vice president of applications Alex Dayon said they are excited that with Assistly’s innovative technology and business model, the Service Cloud will now enable even the smallest companies to become a social enterprise.
Assistly CEO Alex Bard said as part of Salesforce.com and the Service Cloud family, Assistly can continue to deliver and improve one of the world’s most-innovative customer-service applications.
With this acquisition, Salesforce.com will now extend their support to many small and emerging businesses that have been waiting for a customer-service help desk application with instant sign up, zero-touch onboarding, and capabilities and pricing scaled to their needs.
As part of the Service Cloud family, Assistly customers that continue to grow will have the option to migrate to other Service Cloud products and services over time.
The combination of Assistly and the Service Cloud from Salesforce.com makes it easy for any company, regardless of size, to transform itself into a social enterprise, the cloud computing firm said.
