Best Corporate Development Team in Software
What are the best corporate development teams in technology (software specifically)?
I gauge the quality of the team based on 1) how active they are, 2) typical deal type (acquihire vs real product acquisition), 3) how lean the team is, and 4) prominence of the company within the industry. I don't care about team pedigree (as pompous as pedigree sounds).
This would exclude the roll-up companies like Constellation.
Just look at the companies where M&A is a core part of their operating strategy and you’ll have your answer - salesforce, Databricks, and similar names (eg adobe, now, etc) come to mind
+1 on Databricks and I’d also include Snowflake as the top two most interesting seats in Software CorpDev. They seem to do a deal every few months and are active in investing as well. Cybersecurity names (esp. Palo Alto Networks) would also fall into this bucket)
Adobe/SFDC are not as interesting to me bc of the way the teams are structured (based on business unit / products) meaning less shots on goal throughout the year. Companies like ServiceNow also fall into this category.
Know of a few people in those places and for anyone who's looking - you'll get good experience but you should aim to leave once you have a few deals under the belt. Because of the number of deals, they are constantly working near banking hours with less than half the pay, you might as well go back to banking at that point with that hourly wage
This tracks based on some of the conversations I've had with folks in the industry.
Snowflake, Databricks, and OpenAI have been very active on the investing and acquisition side, but have team's the size of SMID cap players in the space. This would lend well to experience but makes me surprised as to why they don't go out and hire more folks.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some insights into evaluating the best corporate development teams in the software industry:
Activity Level:
Deal Type:
Team Structure:
Prominence in the Industry:
Exclusions:
For specific examples, you might want to research companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, or Adobe, as they are known for their strategic and impactful acquisitions in the software space. However, the context does not provide a definitive ranking of the "best" teams.
Sources: Knowledge Sharing: Corporate Development / M&A, Q&A: Corp Dev > Strategic Finance > VC, Questions about Corp Dev post-banking, Anyone actually like their corporate development job? (Post -IB), Corporate Strategy vs Corporate Development
Roper. It's a software holdco that I would argue has almost built the better version of Constellation... instead of buying hundreds of crappy founder-owned businesses, they do 1-2 "platform" deals per year of premier $1B+ EV assets. Outstanding reputation among bankers / sellers... know of at least a couple instances where folks took a discount to sign with them.
Agreed. I believe TB has exited to them a few times.
Issue there would be compensation, but the COL would offset that. Sr. Manager level comp at these tech firms mentioned above mirrors a low-mid VP compensation at BB.
Definitely Databricks should be up there. They have a tiny corp dev team (I heard 4 people) that does 5+ deals per year, almost unheard of.
Have you heard anything about Snowflake or cybersecurity names in the space?
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