Last week we saw the announcement that Taleo will acquire Vurv, essentially number 1 taking number 2 in the Talent Management marketplace. This is both good and bad news for the other players in the market. Bad because the combined entity will certainly be a major player, good in that both companies will have to work hard not to lose focus during the acquisition process.
Jason Corsello from The Human Capitalist has some good analysis of the deal, and fundamentally asks is this good for the customer? I suspect only time will tell.
Further to this I tend to agree with other commentators the consolidation of the Talent Management application space is not going to stop anytime soon. Inside Recruiting as a good interview with Authoria‘s president and CEO, Tod Loofbourrow about the deal. A key quote from Tod:
“Short term, the consolidation from 45 to a handful simplifies recruiters’ technology choices. But the factors driving the consolidation — the broader talent management opportunity — will force recruiters to go beyond a recruiting-only mindset, and come to grips with more strategic organizational needs and talent management opportunities such as quality of hiring; filling gaps in leadership pipelines; and retaining high performers.”
There has been lots of debate over the last few year about what is Talent Management, most recruiting vendors have added some talent management features but no one really has an end to end strong offering, assuming talent management is covers workforce planning, acquisition, performance management, career development, succession management, e-learning and compensation management. A thought confirmed by James Holincheck in his December 2007 report for Gartner, sorry there is no easy link directly to the report search for his research it will costs you US$195 for the report.
Another thought what does it mean for our local Australia vendors in this space? Will the combined entity make competing against them too difficult at the high end, and limit local vendors to the Small to Medium end of the market?
Michael Specht 
I have my doubts on whether this would really be a major puller. While a niche solution is always best in terms of the offering (that becosmes stronger with this acquisition). However what remains to be seen is how this would make Taleo – Vurve combine give more value to customers who are already considering a ERP / HRMS offering.
Amit you are right on! How are they going to add value to their customers both new & old.