Phew… what an intense and eventful autumn it has been – but we reached our long-planned M&A summit.
I’m very excited about our acquisition of Motley Agency, announced on September 29th. This is the kind of a major move that I started to plan way before my first day at Bilot. In the words of Inderes, the analysts, ‘the move enhances Bilot’s own capabilities and relative positioning in competencies key to good growth opportunities and strategic design’. My humble thanks. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Inderes also observed that we go way back with Motley and know them well. Working again with their CEO Jens Krogell and the whole team is sheer joy, and I know we’ll do great things together (I’m smiling as I write…).
In short, this is a glaringly obvious step on our systematic growth path to become an end-to-end supplier of world-class digital commerce solutions. We’ll cover all service development stages from strategy and planning to the implementation and maintenance of digital business solutions.
We hear from customers that they need help in designing and developing the e-commerce user experience. Technology has an impact both on design and strategy and vice versa. This is as true for digital services as it is for real-world products, where the designer works closely with a craftsman who understands the material. With the acquisitions of Motley now and CastorIT a year ago, our capabilities are a great deal stronger.
Acquisition brings together end-to-end expertise in digital business
Based on lengthy discussions with Jens, we strongly agree that having critical competencies in a single entity is key to digital business solutions development. Business-to-consumer commerce is spearheading digital business development in many ways.
Together with Motley Agency, we will bring the quality of digital consumer business into the business-to-business environment. We will be an end-to-end business driver to our customers, helping them catapult their strategies and ideas into implementation. E-commerce is no longer an afterthought. As software is “eating the world”, as Marc Andreessen has it, digital commerce is eating commerce.
And I must say, I am delighted by Motley’s hands-on approach to strategy and with their rock-solid design and software development teams. This fits our times, and yours truly, like a glove.
Together, we will be a team of around 250 digital business experts. Huge thanks to the entire staff of both companies and a big, big hand to the core transaction team. Jens Krogell, Riikka Koskenohi, Mathias Hjelt, you embody the Bilot spirit of courage and capability. My humble thanks and appreciation!
-Ville
