LiveTiles extends global reach with $19M CYCL buy

Peter Nguyen Brown (L) and Karl Redenbach (R) of LiveTiles

Australian-listed Microsoft partner and intelligent workplace software provider LiveTiles has inked a $19 million deal to acquire Swiss intelligent intranet software maker CYCL.

CYCL, which provides services for SharePoint, Office 365 and Azure-based platforms, is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has made a name for itself since its launch in 1999 thanks to its intranet software products and its range of solutions for communication, collaboration and digitisation of collaborative processes.

The company is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland with offices in Bern, Zurich and Boston. CYCL  has 156 customers, including many global brands and multinationals such as PwC, Roche, Shell, Siemens,  SwissLife and the United Nations.

For LiveTiles, which is publicly-listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the deal will see it broaden its reach in Europe, where CYCL has substantial presence, while also tapping into its small and growing presence in the United States. 

Moreover, the combination of joint capabilities between CYCL’s MatchPoint product and LiveTiles’ own product portfolio is expected to create an “enhanced Intelligent workplace offering which will open up greater enterprise opportunities”.

“CYCL will accelerate the evolution of LiveTiles’ Intelligent Workplace platform by delivering exciting new capabilities to current and future customers,” LiveTiles co-founder and CEO Karl Redenbach said. “This acquisition fast-tracks our product roadmap with an aligned technology architecture developed by a highly talented team. 

“We are particularly excited about the opportunity to target organisations with large deskless workforces via CYCL’s low-touch, mobile-friendly Condense product,” he said.

For CYCL CEO Patrick Pűntener, the company is eyeing substantial growth as a result of the acquisition.

“We are genuinely excited to be joining the LiveTiles team, the global market leader in the relatively new category of intranet software,” Pűntener said. “We are fully aligned with LiveTiles’ Intelligent Workplace vision and we look forward to realising the substantial opportunity to accelerate growth as we combine our products, teams and sales channels.”

The terms of the deal comprise an upfront component of $19.0 million and two earn-outs of up to $13.2 million in aggregate. Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur on 2 December 2019.

Earlier this year, LiveTiles and Microsoft partnered to develop a new corporate intranet with pharmaceutical giant Novartis becoming their first joint customer.

The new product uses Microsoft’s SharePoint home sites and Wizdom software, which LiveTiles acquired for $48 million in February.