On 24 April 2007, Tridion – a leading global provider of Web Content Management (WCM) software solutions built on the .NET platform – announced agreement to be acquired by SDL International, the leading provider of Global Information Management (GIM) solutions for €69 million ($USD94m)! The transaction closed in mid-May and helps realise the value created by Tridion for their investors who included our friends at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures.
Based in the Netherlands and established in 1999, Tridion have long been a leader in the WCM business, and as recently as 2006 Tridion were recognised in the Red Herring Venture Market Top 100 (blogged here). Its core Web content management solution—XML-based Tridion R5—plays a key role in many Fortune 500 enterprises in the United States and Europe. The Tridion R5 platform is standardised on Microsoft® solutions, which have been at the heart of the company’s success. You can read more in this EBT Success Story.
As I understand it, Tridion will continue to operate as a highly autonomous division of SDL, same strategy, same management team and organization etc. however they can now leverage a larger global footprint and accelerate plans for tackling broader solutions and markets.
In recognition of the recent acquisition activity in the market, the Microsoft EBT are considering a study that will look at the relative exit values of technology start-ups. Does “betting on Microsoft equal winning”? Well, Tridion was a USD$94m ‘yes’!
