Tech company Trimble recently acquired Viewpoint Construction Software in a bid to offer “end-to-end” construction solutions to its customers.
Viewpoint is best known for its software as a service construction management software, which allows construction companies to communicate effectively and streamline different departments across the timeline of a project. The goal is to allow construction companies to use only one software across their field of operations, tracking spending, planning and payroll. The company has approximately 8,000 customers worldwide, including almost half of ENR’s Top 400 Contractors list.
Trimble acquired the smaller company in a $1.2 billion cash deal. The deal is expected to go through in the year’s third quarter, and Trimble management expects it to bring in approximately $200 million in additional revenue in 2018 alone.
According to Trimble’s management, the move is meant to complement the company’s February acquisition of fellow construction management company e-Builder. While e-Builder is popular among owners and managers, Viewpoint focuses on management for contractors and subcontractors. Trimble leadership hopes that the companies’ different capabilities will allow them to offer more transparency across the project. In his statement on the subject, Trimble CEO Steven W. Berglund said that the two acquisitions “are strategically significant and position us to play a unique and central market role in providing comprehensive enterprise and project solutions.”
Viewpoint executives say that the company will remain relatively independent, retaining its executive team, its employees and its Portland location. “The intent is to continue what we have been doing,” Viewpoint Chief Executive Manolis Kotzabasakis told The Oregonian. “They see this as the foundation for them to become, by far, the world’s leading construction technology company. And Viewpoint and Portland are going to be at the center of it.”
And Trimble’s management seems equally enthused about the possibility of collaboration. In his statement, Berglund said, “This partnership is a perfect fit, as Trimble and Viewpoint share a common vision helping construction companies integrate operations across the office, team and field, improving project profitability, enhancing productivity and effectively collaborating across the construction ecosystem.”