Question for the Class:

Does the recent consolidation of performance management vendors make the remaining independent vendors MORE valuable or LESS attractive to customers?

Let’s take the “MORE” argument first.

Low hanging fruit:
· less competitive clutter and comparison companies to be evaluated against for an acquisition
· easier to play the “we’re the last of the independents” card than before
· take advantage of vendor integration issues and make hay in the market before bigger vendors get their stories straight

Medium hanging fruit:
· Clearer differentiation between their story and the larger faceless nameless conglomerate
· Faceless nameless conglomerate has lots of okay products to sell, they have one really good one
· conglomerates move slower, slower to respond

Not quite ripe fruit:
· “We’re seeing a lot of people trying to join us since the acquisition was announced.”
· Threat of product discontinuance or lack of ongoing support for products makes the independent vendor more reliable and dependable.
· Now the current product line-up of the conglomerate de-emphasizes so this isn’t a core business for them like the independent vendor.

What am I missing here?