Arik Hesseldahl

Recent Posts by Arik Hesseldahl

The Lingering Impact of SuccessFactors

This week started off with an acquisition by SAP of Ariba for $4.3 billion. The deal brought to mind another one by SAP of similar size that occurred last year: SAP’s $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors.

That deal had something of a transformative effect on the cloud software landscape. Soon, other players in its niche were snapped up. Oracle acquired Taleo for $1.9 billion, and Salesforce.com acquired Rypple. Meanwhile, Workday is growing fast and prepping for what looks to be the biggest IPO of the second half of the year.

So back to SuccessFactors. A quick look at the infographic below gives you some idea of the outsized impact it has had on the wider world. SuccessFactors alums are in senior positions at companies as varied as Okta, Pandora, Workday and Marketo. It sounds cool, but looks a lot cooler when presented in a snappy infographic like the one below. Click on it to make it bigger.

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There was a worry before I started this that I was going to burn every bridge I had. But I realize now that there are some bridges that are worth burning.

— Valleywag editor Sam Biddle