Mergers and Acquisitions, Enterprise, Security Staff Acquisition & Development

Workday Acquiring Peakon ApS to Drive Employee Experience

Workday is acquiring employee listening platform software company Peakon ApS in an all-cash deal valued at $700 million -- subject to potential adjustments. The deal is expected to close before May 2021.

This is M&A deal number 76 that ChannelE2E has covered thus far in 2021. See a full list of mergers and acquisitions from 2020 and 2021 here.

WorkDay is best-known for SaaS-based human resources software, though the company has been building SaaS applications that also address financial management, professional services automation (PSA) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Workday Acquires Peakon: Software Details

Peakon is a people analytics platform that enables organizations to gain visibility into employee experience, sentiment and productivity that can help drive employee engagement and improve organizational performance. Peakon's software can automatically send targeted surveys to gauge employee sentiment, and then return insights and recommend actions based on employee feedback, according to a statement announcing the deal.

Peakon’s technology, combined with Workday's human resources SaaS platform, will help organizations discover and respond to evolving employee feelings, needs and behaviors. For example, customers will be able to gain better insights and understanding on employee belonging, which will help them more confidently and consistently adjust plans to foster an inclusive workplace culture, according to the statement.

Workday and Peakon: Executive Commentary

Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and co-CEO, Workday
Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and co-CEO, Workday

Phil Chambers, CEO, Peakon

Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and co-CEO, Workday commented on the news:

“Peakon is on the cutting edge of helping organizations turn employee insights into more connected teams and stronger organizations. Bringing Peakon into the Workday family will be very compelling to our customers - especially following an extraordinary past year that has magnified the importance of having a constant pulse on employee sentiment in order to keep people engaged and productive.”

Phil Chambers, co-founder and CEO, Peakon, said:

“By joining forces with Workday, we’re able to accelerate our mission to help every employee drive the change they want to see. We share Workday’s passion for putting people at the center of technology, and together, we’ll be able to provide customers with the employee insights they need to support rapid change and growth.”

Sharon Florentine

Sharon is a master technology storyteller and editor with omnichannel experience: books and print magazines, digital, webcast, blogging, podcast, live events and video and associated brand-specific social media content. From 1999 to 2003, she acquired and edited technology books and certification exam prep guides.

After a year spent in publicity and editorial at mass-market book publishers, she returned to tech publishing and, since 2004, explored B2C and B2B news, issues and trends in consumer, lifestyle, software, software development, AI, ML, networks, big data, hardware, security, storage, cloud, equity, inclusion, diversity, women in tech, career development, IT management, H-1B visa issues and immigration, education, training and learning.

Her previous role was as the managing editor at Techstrong Group in charge of Cloud Native Now, DevOps.com, Security Boulevard and Techstrong ITSM and their brand-specific social media. She currently serves as editorial director for CyberRisk Alliance’s channel brands, ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert and acting editorial director for SC Media UK. Drop me a note and let’s talk!

You can skip this ad in 5 seconds