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Zendesk

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Zendesk, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustrySoftware as a service
Founded2007;17 years ago(2007)inCopenhagen,Denmark
Founders
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California,U.S.
Number of locations
19 (2022)
Key people
  • Tom Eggemeier(CEO)
RevenueIncreaseUS$1.34 billion(2021)
DecreaseUS$−166.68 million(2021)
DecreaseUS$−223.64 million(2021)
Total assetsIncreaseUS$2.45 billion(2021)
Total equityIncreaseUS$489.22 million(2021)
Owner
Number of employees
5,860 (December 31, 2021)
Websitezendesk
Footnotes / references
[1]

Zendesk, Inc.is a Danish-American company headquartered inSan Francisco, California.It providessoftware-as-a-serviceproducts related tocustomer support,sales, and other customer communications. The company was founded inCopenhagen,Denmark,in 2007. Zendesk raised about $86 million in venture capital investments before going public in 2014.[2]

On November 22, 2022, Zendesk announced that it had been acquired by a group of investors led byHellman & FriedmanandPermirafor approximately $10.2 billion.[3]

History[edit]

Origins and funding[edit]

Zendesk was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007 by three friends: Morten Primdahl, Alexander Aghassipour, andMikkel Svane.[4][5]The founders started developing the Zendesk software in Svane's loft.[6]Initially, Zendesk was funded by the cofounders themselves, each doing consulting jobs to support their families.[6][7]Within a few months of the Zendesk software-as-a-service product being released in the fall of 2007, it had about 1,000 trial customers.[6]Initially, interest in the software spread slowly through word-of-mouth[6]predominantly among other startups.[8]Adoption accelerated in 2008, due to an increased interest in responding to customer complaints on social media and afterTwitterstarted using Zendesk.[6]

Venture capital investors were willing to invest in Zendesk only if the company moved to the United States,[4]where most of their customers were.[6]In 2009 Zendesk moved toBoston,Massachusetts.About six months later, they made a second move, this time to San Francisco,California.[4][9]The company raised $500,000 in seed funding, which was followed by aseries Afunding round for an undisclosed amount[10]and a series B round for $6 million.[6]Zendesk raised $19 million in aseries Cfunding round in December 2010,[4]followed by $60 million in aseries Dfunding round in 2012.[11]This brought total venture capital funding to about $86 million.[4]

2010–2016[edit]

In 2010, many customers threatened to leave Zendesk in response to a substantial price increase after new features were introduced.[12]Zendesk apologized, abandoned the pricing, and promised never to change pricing on pre-existing customers for features they already have.[9]That same year, Zendesk created its first sales team.[6]Zendesk moved to larger offices in theTenderloinneighborhood of San Francisco in 2011.[7]The city and county of San Francisco provided Zendesk with a six-year payroll tax incentive to move to the area in exchange for doing community service.[4][7]

Zendesk grew internationally, and offices were established inIreland,Denmark,andAustralia.[4][13]In 2017, Zendesk opened an office inSingapore.[14]As of 2011half of Zendesk's customers were outside the United States.[4]Although the company was not yet profitable, Zendesk's revenues grew five-fold from 2010 to 2012.[4]Revenues grew from $38 million in 2012 to $72 million in 2013.[5]Zendesk introduced its first app marketplace for third-party Zendesk software in 2012.[6]By 2013, the company had 450 employees.[6]

In 2014, Zendesk filed aninitial public offering[15]and was valued at $1.7 billion.[5]TheIPOraised $100 million.[16]That same year, Zendesk announced its first acquisition.[17]It bought a live-chat company called Zopim for $29.8 million.[17]It acquired a French analytics company called BIME for $45 million.[18]It also acquired Outbound.io, which developed software to manage direct communications with customers on social media sites.[19]Additionally, Zendesk acquired Base, who developed sales automation software that competed withSalesforce,for $50 million.[20]

In 2015, Zendesk filed oppositions at theUnited States Patent and Trademark Officeto 49 trademarks including the word "zen". TheElectronic Frontier Foundationcharacterized their approach of filing multiple trademark infringement lawsuits covering a wide range of businesses astrademark trolling,and EFF condemned the practice.[21][22][23]

Initially, Zendesk's software was focused on assisting small businesses, but it transitioned to aid larger companies over time.[24][25]Zendesk also transitioned from a focus on inbound customer inquiries into communicating with customers proactively based on comments they made online.[19]In 2016, Zendesk changed its logo and rebranded to emphasize contacting customers proactively.[26]It added features that turn online reviews and comments into a customer help ticket in September 2016 and acquired Outbound.io, which helps businesses respond to online complaints in 2017.[19][27]Zendesk introduced new analytics and automation products in 2012[28]and 2016.[26]In 2016, it added features that tell customer service agents which portions of the website a customer visited before contacting customer support.[29]That same year, Zendesk added features that attempt to predict which customers are most likely to cancel their subscription service.[30]

Recent history[edit]

In 2017, Zendesk added an AI bot that has conversations with customers and attempts to direct the customer to the answer they're looking for.[31]The bot initially had limited functionality, but was expanded in 2019.[31]In 2018, the company introduced Zendesk Suite, which combines social media, live-chat, email, and other communications into a single ticket system.[32]An enterprise version of the software-as-a-service product was released in 2018.[24]By that time, 40 percent of Zendesk's revenue was coming from larger companies.[24]In 2019, Zendesk first released its "Sunshine" tool, which is focused on direct-messaging customers on social media sites.[33]

Zendesk eventually expanded from just customer service to also managing other customer interactions, such as sales.[34]The company first moved into sales software with its September 2018 acquisition of competitor Base.[35][34]Base was later renamed Sell and a Sell Marketplace was created for corresponding third-party apps.[35]Part of the social media software acquired from Smooch was rebranded as Sunshine Conversations, a tool that competes with Salesforce.[36][37]Zendesk's sales automation software was later revamped with Zendesk Sell in 2020, which improved integration with Zendesk's customer support software.[37]Since then, Zendesk marketplace has integrated severalthird parties technologiesto provide more services to the end customers. In 2021 for example, several companies joined Zendesk marketplace, such as Crowlingo for multilingual data collection, Verse for lead conversion and ViiBE for remote visual support.[38]

By 2018, Zendesk had annual revenues of $500 million.[39][31]

In July 2019, cybersecurity researcher Sam Jadali exposed a catastrophic data leak known asDataSpii.[40][41]The leak was facilitated by the marketing intelligence company Nacho Analytics (NA). Branding itself as the "God mode for the internet," NA granted its members the ability to access URLs for support-ticket file attachments from Zendesk customers, including Venmo.[42][43]Importantly, due to Zendesk's default privacy settings, support-ticket file attachment URLs are publicly accessible unless customers adjust these settings for enhanced privacy.[44]The DataSpii report revealed that third parties systematically accessed URLs almost immediately after their collection, posing a threat to the confidentiality of the sensitive information contained within them.[45][46]

In October 2019, Zendesk disclosed that it was hacked in 2016, resulting in a potential leak of information about customer service agents using Zendesk.[47]

In May 2019, Zendesk acquiredMontreal-based Smooch, for an undisclosed amount. Smooch provided messaging services on websites for live-chat customer support.[31]In 2020, Zendesk announced more tools for messaging customers on social media and enhancements to its customer relationship management features.[36][48]

In October 2021, Zendesk announced that it was acquiringMomentive Global Inc.,formerly SurveyMonkey, for $4.13 billion.[49]Zendesk's investors rejected the deal on February 25, 2022 and terminated the agreement due to risk.[50]

In June 2022, it was announced that Zendesk would be acquired by a consortium ofprivate-equity firmsled byPermiraandHellman & Friedmanin an all-cash deal worth $10.2 billion.[51]Thereafter due to the pending acquisition by these firms Zendesk neither provided shareholder's letter nor held a conference call or webcast to disclose the financial results for thethird quarterending September 30, 2022.[52]

In September 2022, with the closure of 3rd quarter the financial results were out with a substantial increase in revenue by 20% over the year to $416.9 million andGAAPoperating loss of $55.4 million with non-GAAP operating income of $48.9 million. In addition to this due to the impending transaction, Zendesk suspended it's financial guidance for thefiscal yearending December 30, 2022.[52]

In November 2022, it was announced that the investor group had completed the acquisition of Zendesk for approximately $10.2 billion.[53]

In June 2023, Zendesk announced it had acquired Tymeshift for an undisclosed price.[54]

References[edit]

  1. ^Zendesk 10-K FY 2021(PDF),2021-12-31
  2. ^Dealroom,.co (11 November 2022)."Zendesk company information, funding and investors".app.dealroom.co.Retrieved11 November2022.
  3. ^"Consortium led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira completes acquisition of Zendesk".Permira.Retrieved2022-12-28.
  4. ^abcdefghiShinal, John (July 28, 2011)."Startup Strives to Make Customer Service a More 'Zen' Experience".Entrepreneur.RetrievedOctober 2,2020.
  5. ^abcKim, Eugene (December 16, 2014)."How This CEO Was Able To Take His Company Public When Everybody Else Was Panicking".Business Insider.RetrievedOctober 2,2020.
  6. ^abcdefghijRao, Leena (November 16, 2013)."From Its Beginnings In A Denmark Loft, Zendesk's Steady Rise To The Top Of The Helpdesk Heap".TechCrunch.RetrievedAugust 16,2023.
  7. ^abcLocke, Laura (July 30, 2014)."The tech firm helping a tough area".BBC News.RetrievedOctober 2,2020.
  8. ^"How Zendesk's Founders Built a $2.1 Billion Business by Ignoring Investors' Advice".Inc.January 25, 2017.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  9. ^abRoush, Wade (August 4, 2010)."Xconomy: Making Customer Support Sexy: Zendesk's Help Desk Lovefest".Xconomy.RetrievedOctober 2,2020.
  10. ^Wauters, Robin (May 7, 2009)."Zendesk Secures Funding For SaaS Help Desk System, Heads To The U.S."TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 4,2020.
  11. ^Gannes, Liz (September 12, 2012)."Enterprise Is So Hot Right Now: Zendesk Raises $60M for Customer Service (Video)".AllThingsD.RetrievedOctober 2,2020.
  12. ^Wauters, Robin (May 18, 2010)."Zendesk Raises Prices, Pisses Off Customers".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 4,2020.
  13. ^Dishman, Lydia (October 14, 2011)."Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane: Complaints Are Good for Business".Fast Company.RetrievedOctober 2,2020.
  14. ^"Zendesk to expand S'pore office, hire staff".The Straits Times.February 23, 2017.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  15. ^Wiggers, Kyle (May 22, 2019)."Zendesk acquires conversational platform Smooch, launches new WhatsApp and Slack integrations".VentureBeat.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  16. ^"Zendesk raises $100M in IPO -- and traders love it (updated)".VentureBeat.May 15, 2014.RetrievedOctober 13,2020.
  17. ^abLunden, Ingrid (April 10, 2014)."Zendesk Buys Live Chat Provider Zopim For Up To $29.8M As It Files For $150M IPO – TechCrunch".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 13,2020.
  18. ^Kepes, Ben (October 15, 2015)."Zendesk acquires BIME Analytics -- but what of the GoodData bromance?".Computerworld.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  19. ^abcYeung, Ken (May 4, 2017)."Zendesk acquires Outbound.io to help companies proactively approach customers".VentureBeat.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  20. ^Miller, Ron (September 10, 2018)."Zendesk expands into CRM with Base acquisition".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  21. ^"Startups fighting over the word 'zen'".Sfgate.December 19, 2014.RetrievedAugust 8,2018.
  22. ^"Zendesk And The Art Of Trademark Maintenance".Forbes.December 20, 2014.RetrievedAugust 8,2018.
  23. ^"Zendesk and the Art of Trademark Trolling".Electronic Frontier Foundation.May 20, 2016.RetrievedAugust 8,2018.
  24. ^abcMiller, Ron (April 3, 2018)."Zendesk hits $500M run rate, launches enterprise content management platform".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  25. ^Miller, Ron (September 17, 2014)."Zendesk Gets Serious About The Enterprise".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 13,2020.
  26. ^abYeung, Ken (October 26, 2016)."Zendesk launches new tools to help brands get ahead on customer service".VentureBeat.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  27. ^Johnson, Khari (September 15, 2016)."How Zendesk plans to turn online customer reviews into conversations".VentureBeat.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  28. ^King, Rachel (March 15, 2012)."Zendesk using analytics to understand 'silent' customers".ZDNet.RetrievedOctober 13,2020.
  29. ^"Zendesk's Pathfinder helps customer service reps see what you're searching for".VentureBeat.March 17, 2016.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  30. ^Kim, Eugene (March 15, 2016)."Zendesk can now predict who's likely to stop using your service before you do".Business Insider.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  31. ^abcdWiggers, Kyle (June 12, 2019)."Zendesk launches Answer Bot API and mobile SDKs, rolls out Guide Enterprise improvements".VentureBeat.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  32. ^Watts, Rob (May 17, 2018)."Zendesk Launches Zendesk Suite and Zendesk Connect".PCMAG.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  33. ^Condon, Stephanie (October 3, 2019)."Zendesk introduces Sunshine Conversations for customer messaging".ZDNet.[dead link]
  34. ^abMiller, Ron (November 13, 2018)."Zendesk shifts to platform play with Zendesk Sunshine launch – TechCrunch".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  35. ^abMiller, Ron (March 4, 2020)."Zendesk's latest tools designed to give fuller view of the customer".TechCrunch.RetrievedOctober 11,2020.
  36. ^abSevilla, Gadjo (March 31, 2020)."Zendesk's Adds Conversations to New Sales and Service Suites".PCMAG.RetrievedOctober 11,2020.
  37. ^ab"Zendesk Aims for Greater Piece of CRM Pie With Sunshine".eWEEK.October 11, 2020.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  38. ^"Integrations to keep your summer going".30 July 2021.
  39. ^Condon, Stephanie (May 17, 2018)."Zendesk rolls out new products for more integrated customer service".ZDNet.RetrievedOctober 12,2020.
  40. ^Goodin, Dan (2019-07-18)."My browser, the spy: How extensions slurped up browsing histories from 4M users".Ars Technica.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  41. ^Fowler, Geoffrey A. (2019-07-19)."Perspective | I found your data. It's for sale".Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  42. ^Goodin, Dan (2019-07-24)."Still available via Google Analytics: Data slurped from 4 million browsers".Ars Technica.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  43. ^"DataSpii Impacted Companies".Security with Sam.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  44. ^"Enabling attachments in tickets".Zendesk help.2023-12-27.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  45. ^Jadali, Sam (2019-07-18)."DataSpii - A global catastrophic data leak via browser extensions".Security with Sam.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  46. ^Goodin, Dan (2019-07-18)."More on DataSpii: How extensions hide their data grabs—and how they're discovered".Ars Technica.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  47. ^Cimpanu, Catalin (October 2, 2019)."Zendesk discloses 2016 data breach".ZDNet.RetrievedOctober 11,2020.
  48. ^Condon, Stephanie (March 4, 2020)."Zendesk launches Sales Suite, bundling Zendesk Sell, Chat and other tools".ZDNet.RetrievedOctober 11,2020.
  49. ^Ron Miller (November 1, 2021)."Zendesk moves into customer experience data with $4.13B SurveyMonkey deal".TechCrunch.RetrievedNovember 12,2021.
  50. ^Herbst-Bayliss, Svea (2022-02-25)."Zendesk investors reject deal to buy SurveyMonkey parent".Reuters.Retrieved2022-02-27.
  51. ^Ron Miller (June 24, 2022)."Zendesk drama concludes with $10.2 billion private equity acquisition".TechCrunch.
  52. ^abBusiness, wire (27 October 2022)."Zendesk Announces Third Quarter 2022 Results".Businesswire.Retrieved11 November2022.{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help)
  53. ^Miller, Ron (2022-06-24)."Zendesk drama concludes with $10.2 billion private equity acquisition".TechCrunch.Retrieved2023-05-25.
  54. ^"Zendesk acquires Tymeshift for optimized customer service".SiliconANGLE.2023-06-22.Retrieved2023-08-10.

External links[edit]

  • Official website
    • Historical business data for Zendesk, Inc.:
    • SEC filings
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zendesk&oldid=1232974627"