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Stripe’s New Office in Mexico City, Salesforce Acquires ClickSoftware, Pinterest Adds Shopping Hub: Newsletter August 2, 2019

August 9, 2019

FE International Blog

Newsletter

Stripe announced a new flagship office opening in Latin America as part of a continued global expansion campaign. The Mexico City location is the newest of several offices around the world as Stripe invests into increasing e-commerce growth and mobile payment usage in Latin America. Internet shoppers in Latin America are expected to increase to 155 million by the end of 2019, an increase of 23% over the last three years. Recently valued at $22.5 billion, Stripe plans to build a strong engineering team in the Latin America office to capitalize on the regions nearly 500 million internet users.

Elsewhere in the world of SaaS, Salesforce announced it will acquire workforce management software firm ClickSoftware in a $1.35 billion cash and stock deal. ClickSoftware will improve Salesforce’s own Field Service Lightning product, as well as bolster its Service Cloud, according to Salesforce Service Cloud unit General Manager Bill Patterson. Salesforce has made a series of expensive SaaS acquisitions over the past year, including MuleSoft (March’18, $6.5 billion) and Tableau (June’19, $15 billion in stock), as part of a strategy to expand upon and strengthen its offerings.

The e-commerce space saw Pinterest recently announce the addition of a personalized “shopping hub” to the social media platform. This new feature will be displayed at the top of user newsfeeds and will include recommendations for products sourced form organic retailer Product Pins and Catalog Feeds. This e-commerce feature follows the company’s second ever quarterly earnings report, which showed a 62% increase in earnings with $261 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2019. Monthly active users have reached 300 million, a 30% increase year-on-year.

Digital marketing news this week saw Google announce a bug which removed its ability to index new content being published, as well as disruptions with the URL Inspection tool within Search Console. The issue is “impacting some sites” per Google Webmasters, however newest content from major outlets including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were not being displayed, indicating widespread outages. For SEO experts and publishers analyzing page performance, Google recommends checking back on analytics once the issues have been resolved.

New in listings this week, FE is excited to introduce a top-rated digital service business specialized in B2B lead generation valued at over $600K. The business focused on generating high converting leads through LinkedIn and is monetized through recurring subscriptions. With over 500 million users on LinkedIn, this reputable B2B digital service provider has scaled at an impressive rate, with plenty of room left to grow. Revenues have reached a c.73.9% CAGR for the period 2017 to (e)2019 while generating an impressive ARPO of c.$1,000 and LTV of c.$4,300. Please follow the link above to request a prospectus.

In events news this week, Founder Thomas Smale will be attending SaaSStock Local in San Francisco on August 21 to join other leading founders in a discussion around Churnbusting and how to overcome roadblocks to growth in business. Later in the month on August 29th Thomas will be attending SaaStr Scale in San Francisco. If you will be attending and want to connect, feel free to reply to this email to set up a meeting.

Continue reading below for more on Stripe’s continued global expansion, Pinterest’s new personalized shopping hub plus a bonus story on the Huawei ban.

Listings

New

Digital Service – B2B Lead Generation – $44K gross/mo

Clear value proposition aimed at c.610 million LinkedIn users
Productized digital service model monetized via recurring subscriptions
Steady revenue growth with a high ARPO and LTV
Fine-tuned process with robust systems and automation in-place
Well-trained team staying on with the business post-sale

Yearly net profit: $159,000
Asking price: $604,000

Digital Service – B2B Virtual Assistant Services – $37K MRR

Firm foothold in the profitable $85.6 billion outsourced services industry
Long and successful operating history spanning 14 years
Effective productized digital service model monetized via recurring subscriptions
Lucrative subscription metrics with a high MRR of c.$37,000 and LTV of c.$3,000
Notable client base with numerous Fortune 500 brands

Yearly net profit: $146,000
Asking price: $557,000

Advertising – Health and Lifestyle Blog – $8K gross/mo

Well-established brand in a growing, multi-trillion-dollar niche
Steady traffic with over 9.5 million lifetime visitors and 3 million visitors in the LTM
Strong social media presence with over 100,000 followers across various social platforms
Rapid revenue growth of c.27.4% CAGR over the 2017 to (e)2019 period

Yearly net profit: $84,000
Asking price: $245,000

E-Commerce – Notebooks & Apparel – $6.2K gross/mo

Diversified revenues across 3 different e-commerce platforms
Artistic products garnering numerous five-star product reviews
Great product diversification with over 23,000 SKUs
Strong quarterly revenue growth of c.32% over LTM
Successful hybrid e-commerce model allowing for high net margins of 68%

Yearly net profit: $50,000
Asking price: $190,000

Sold

Affiliate – Authority Consumer Products Resource – $151K gross/mo

Amazon FBA – 5 Y/O Eco-Friendly Travel Kitchenware – $12.5K gross/mo

Affiliate – Online Mattress Reviews – $1K gross/mo

Affiliate – Hardware Review Portfolio – $720 gross/mo

Affiliate – 3 Y/O Life Style Affiliate Business – $1.5K gross/mo

In the News…

Stripe Opens New Office in Latin America

Stripe recently announced the addition of a new flagship office in Mexico City. The online payment mogul which has taken Silicon Valley by storm is expanding into Latin America where promising business expansion lies ahead. With an untapped pool of local talent in the region, Stripe will be hiring for a variety of roles, specifically engineering.

As the first office in the region, Stripe plans to gain an understanding of how to develop global technology products. To name a few, Platzi, Rappi, Cornershop, Urbvan, and Parafuzo are Latin American tech companies Stripe is already working with.

Stripe currently has offices in 34 countries around the world including new openings in Estonia, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Malaysia just this year. With the number of internet users growing to upwards of 500 million in Latin American, Stripe is well equipped to “lean into global commerce,” as stated by Stripe’s Chief Business Officer who is originally from Honduras, Billy Alvarado.

Trump Administration Introduces Ban on Huawei Equipment and Services

Washington announced a ban on Wednesday prohibiting American government agencies from purchasing telecom equipment and services directly from select telecom companies in China. On the list of banned companies is Huawei, the world leader in telecom network gear. Slated to take effect on August 13, the rule will be added to the National Defense Authorization Act which passed last year.

A broader ban scheduled to go into effect in 2020, is leaving government contractors questioning what the changes will mean for their business. A spokesman for the office of Management and Budget stated they will comply with Congress on the introduction of prohibition of Chinese telecom and video surveillance equipment in order to protect the U.S. from foreign adversaries.

Pinterest Rolls Out Personalized Shopping Hub with New E-commerce Layer

According to a recent statement from Pinterest, the social network is rolling out new features to expand users’ ability to buy online through the platform. Pinterest’s recently reported 300 million monthly users can now access a personalized shopping hub with pins from retailer catalogs feeds. With a 30% increase in users since last year, online shoppers on Pinterest can easily browse brands like Target, Birdies Slippers, Joybird, The Tie Bar, and Parachute.

In addition to posting advertisements, retailers can now reach users on a personalized level. Ads posted on Pinterest see a return 2x higher that ads posted on other social media platforms. Founder and CEO of Parachute, Ariel Kaye, made a statement stating Pinterest is a “natural destination to connect with our growing community.” The latest additions will be an asset for retailers to meet the increasing demands of e-commerce shoppers.

For more updates throughout the week on the financial world of online business M&A, follow our team on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram