If you run an intranet, or a customer or partner community, you may have been following the recent M&A activity in the social software space involving Jive Software.
In June, Jive – which offers Jive-n for internal intranets and Jive-X for use in external customer and partner communities — was sold to a private Texas investment firm, Aurea, for $462 million.
Two months later, Aurea announced it flipped Jive-X to Lithium Technologies, a San Francisco-based provider of online community and social media management software. The deal, which completed last week, came three years after Lithium paid $200 million to buy the social media ranking platform Klout, an acquisition designed to extend Lithium’s core business of helping companies with their digital customer experience and support functions.
While these deals point to a growing awareness of the size and strength of the enterprise social software market — expected to nearly double to $49.5 billion in 2021, according to Markets and Markets — the Jive-X acquisition by Lithium, one of its main competitors, could have huge implications for those Jive-X and Lithium customers who are wondering what will happen next.
Earlier this month, Jive shared a FAQ detailing what Jive-X customers can expect. Meanwhile, Lithium opened a discussion group in its online community to answer questions and discuss the changes. Both sides say there are no plans to retire the Jive-X platform. In fact, there are “integration teams” on the Lithium side working to integrate Jive customers, support, etc. into Lithium’s organization, and there is a “transition services agreement” with Jive by which Jive will continue to help support those customers. In 2018, Lithium will own the road map and code for the Jive-x product.
While Lithium will not continue to sell Jive-X, it will treat the platform as one of its valued products. There is no “end of life” plan for Jive-X, and Lithium’s leaders are currently speaking with select Jive-X customers to better understand their needs before committing to any next steps. However, the eventual plan is to merge the best of both products.
On the services side, Jive will continue to offer professional services until the end of the year, and Jive-X partners will likely continue to offer professional services to Jive-X customers long after Jive pulls the plug on its professional services offerings. Meanwhile, Lithium has an eye toward growing its partner roster and will include Jive-X partners.
Vanessa DiMauro
Internationally recognized independent thought leader on social business strategy and operations with a specialty in online community. I help organizations drive top line growth through innovative digital strategy design and thoughtful execution. I have successfully led 60+ strategic social business initiatives for the world's most influential organizations over my 20 years as a social business executive and serve on a number of boards. My award-winning track-record is fueled by passion, experience and research.
My work has been covered by leading publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CIO Magazine and was recently named a Social Marketing Master by Forbes. As a former Executive in Residence at Babson College, Olin School of Management, I am an engaging and informational educator and keynote speaker.
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I’m one of the Jive-x users who was surprised (and a little dismayed) by the sale of Jive-x. It would’ve been great to see some quotes from Lithium representatives on the level of their commitment to not retiring Jive-x, and a little bit about just who are these “integration teams.” That’s a term I hadn’t seen before in the wake of all this.
I don’t doubt that Lithium wants to provide a great experience for its customers. But given the unceremonious
dumping of external communities by Aurea, it wouldn’t hurt Lithium to go on a clear goodwill campaign.
Opening a discussion in their customer community is nice. But there’s a dearth of “assurances” out there, and I’m concerned about what the future holds. I can say only one thing for certain. My company isn’t going to just sit around and wait. It’s taking a good look at how to control out own community destiny.
Thanks Frank — as you can see we are looking for any opportunity to provide assurances — so let me take one now! We are committed to providing both innovation and great customer experience for the Jive-X users. We are hosting a variety of events and opportunities to engage with us more deeply — please reach out to us on the Community!