Tibco buys reward scheme and CRM provider
US$23m cash deal for start-up
US customer retention company Tibco is buying Loyalty Lab, which provides loyalty and CRM programmes for major consumer brands, for US$23m in cash, plus debt.
Tibco says the acquisition of San Francisco-based Loyalty Lab, which has 50 employees, will help it expand its customer retention services to existing customers, including airlines and large retailers.
Loyalty Lab has over 35 clients including major retailers, hospitality chains and consumer product manufacturers. Customers for its CRM software for the management of loyalty programmes include the Virgin America airline, 1-800-Flowers, Nvidia and Nine West.
Loyalty Lab’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering enables marketers to manage loyalty marketing programmes, such as frequent flyer programs, from their desktop.
Ram Menon, executive VP for worldwide marketing at Tibco, said that a customer loyalty solution needs to support “not only customer transactions but also real-time customer interactions or events,” and offer “a platform that scales to billions of such events across an increasingly social and mobile marketplace.”
Loyalty Lab CEO Matt Howland said that the deal “will allow us to grow and innovate in ways we couldn’t do alone. Our clients will benefit greatly from this step, as we become an integral part of Tibco’s real-time infrastructure platform and incorporate Tibco’s best-in-class analytics capabilities.”
Loyalty Lab’s client list includes major brands, such as social media game Zynga, Sears, Crate & Barrel, General Mills and Virgin America. One loyalty program for Zynga and General Mills enabled customers to get Farmville points in exchange for General Mills’ spinach that was bought.