ITAM Review analysis on Flexera buying Snow

ITAM News & Analysis

ITAM Review analysis on Flexera buying Snow

Here is the ITAM Review’s analysis of the big Flexera Snow news this week.

The ITAM world changed on the 28th November 2023 when Flexera announced its intention to acquire Snow Software. While we await further details on the acquisition – including how much $$$ they paid – I asked Rich and AJ for their initial thoughts. Take it away guys:

AJ Witt – “the best ITAM-specific talent pool in the industry”

This acquisition benefits the strategy and reach of both organizations. Flexera primarily focus on larger businesses in North America, whereas Snow have grown from SME roots in Europe. Whilst there’s undoubtedly overlap between the customer bases the result will be improved market access for these solutions and greater competitive potential versus other providers of ITAM tools and services. Services is a big part of this too – Snow have a broader partner network which can be leveraged to promote all products.

Alongside market aspects this acquisition also provides Flexera with access to Snow’s worldwide employee base. Whilst there will inevitably be synergies – and job losses – Flexera now have perhaps the best ITAM-specific talent pool in the industry. ITAM skills are hard to come by and this will also benefit other ITAM tools and service providers as inevitably some Snow employees will take the opportunity to seek new challenges.

Typically such acquisitions see economies of scale and synergies being realized and one area I see that being particularly the case is in the recognition engines. Flexera have Technopedia and Snow provide a Software Recognition Service. Combining the two will likely yield the most comprehensive recognition database in the market and if so that will be a key differentiator, particularly as we start to see non-ITAM professionals waking up to the importance of inventory and discovery.

Rich Gibbons – “a strong and robust offering to help marry ITAM, FinOps, and wider cloud management”

Both Flexera and Snow have made inroads into the world of ITAM + FinOps. First with their acquisitions of RightScale and Embotics (respectively) and then with continued product development and marketing focus on the synergies between the two disciplines where we’ve seen advances in container discovery, hybrid licensing management, and cost reporting to name a few. Combining the current capabilities as well as future roadmaps will surely lead to a particularly strong and robust offering to help marry ITAM, FinOps, and wider cloud management.

The combined might of these two tools/platforms will give them a large portion of the ITAM market but it also represents opportunity for other tool and service providers – market disruption can be a positive for many. It is also worth noting that both Flexera and Snow have some exceptionally talented staff and it is to be hoped that their coming together will lead to new innovations at a fast pace, which will benefit the wider ITAM industry as a whole.

If you are a Flexera or Snow customer – we’d love to hear your thoughts/questions on this development!

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