Big News Out of Boston

One of our long-standing clients, Guardium, was just bought by IBM.  It’s every company’s dream…but few succeed.  Of course – when you’ve got the best-and-brightest on your executive team, killer technology that competitors can’t come close to, and more blue chip customers than some of the blue chips out there – what’s not to like?  If you ask me, IBM scored.

I’d like to say I was surprised by Monday’s announcement – but the news was leaked the week before, showing up just about everywhere before it was “official”.   (Anyone who thinks PR is an easy job should ask IBM’s corporate communications team.)

As PR professionals, a successful acquisition is the “happy ending” we all work so hard to achieve.  But when the big day comes, it’s always bittersweet. 

Often, it marks the end of an era.  One that began four years ago with a small, venture-backed company vying for a top spot in an early-stage market – and ended with one of the year’s most successful exits. 

If all goes well, Guardium will continue to expand and thrive under Big Blue’s umbrella.  And if all goes really, really well – we’ll continue to drive visibility for Guardium (like we’ve done for other acquired companies, like VeriSign’s iDefense). 

Big kudos to the Guardium team.  It’s been an awesome run.  And the lessons we’ve learned along the way have us chompin’ at the bit to help do it again. 

- By Corinne Federici