Integration of DirectorsDesk and Boardvantage platforms expected to enhance boards' leadership and collaboration abilities
Nasdaq announced today that it will acquire board portal provider Boardvantage for $200 million in a deal expected to close in the first half of 2016. The acquisition, along with the recent purchase of Marketwired, is expected to strengthen Nasdaq's position as a leading global corporate services provider. The integration of Nasdaq’s DirectorsDesk and Boardvantage’s collaboration platform will enhance clients’ board communication, efficient workflow and decision-making with very secure, best-in-class technology, service and productivity tools.
Boardvantage will complement Nasdaq’s focus on developing leading financial technology solutions and providing boards and management teams with intuitive, streamlined decision-making and collaboration tools, according to Stacie Swanstrom, senior vice president and head of corporate solutions at Nasdaq.
‘Boardvantage has a product called MeetX that’s a board and leadership portal, which allows selling deeper into the organization for enterprise needs. It’s used by not only public companies but also private companies and nonprofits,’ says Swanstrom.
MeetX is also a more customized solution than what Nasdaq currently is able to provide through its own DirectorsDesk, which Nasdaq acquired in June 2007. MeetX offers additional tools that facilitate collaboration and meeting productivity. And with 1,900 clients and roughly 80,000 users, MeetX also has a market reach that will substantially expand Nasdaq’s client base. DirectorsDesk has 1,500 clients and 50,000 users.
Stock exchanges like Nasdaq are increasingly offering complementary services to the companies that list on them to strengthen their corporate governance capabilities and enable them to be that much stronger, says Swanstrom. Nasdaq says it has nearly 15,000 corporate service clients in this area.
The Boardvantage acquisition is expected to advance ‘the convergence of our portfolio coming together later this year and allowing us to serve customers from the investor relations, corporate communications, public relations departments, and management and the board, so the board is apprised of what’s going on throughout the company,’ she says. That’s what boards are interested in from a governance perspective, she adds.
