Four Winds Merges With Irish Employee Communications Firm Poppulo

March 15, 2021 by Dave Haynes

Denver-based digital signage CMS firm Four Winds Interactive has merged with a company called Poppulo, which does email and mobile employee communication software.

The combination is backed by Vista Equity Partners, the investment firm that had earlier taken a substantial ownership position in FWI.

Says the PR:

Through this merger, the combined business will serve 6,000+ customers, the market’s most comprehensive omni-channel employee communications platform with unmatched personalization and measurement capabilities, supplemented by its class-leading space management solution for flexible desk and conference room booking. The combined business will provide a compelling solution for enterprises that are transforming from traditional working environments into venues for collaborative work. For the first time, organizations will be able to instantly connect with every employee – both disconnected and connected – wherever they work, through a single multi-channel platform.

Enterprises today are faced with an unprecedented transition, both in the shift from traditional to hybrid working environments and the widespread return to the workplace as COVID-19 challenges subside. In this transition, employees have a need for an increased flow of information, with greater specificity to their role and location than ever before. With the combined solution from FWI and Poppulo, enterprises will be equipped to meet employee communication needs spanning employee locations and types, across email, mobile, digital signage, and other key information hubs like intranets and messaging platforms, all in a highly personalized way.

“With the rapidly evolving nature of work and the increase in remote, hybrid and non-traditional workplaces, employee communication has never been more important than it is right now. This is true for both frontline and office workers. Together, Poppulo and FWI are extremely well positioned to lead enterprise customers through this critical transformation,” says David Levin, CEO, FWI. “This is about putting the employee at the center of communications and making sure they have the information they need, when they need it, to ensure they are able to work effectively.”

“This merger is a game-changer that will, for the first time, enable organizations to deliver long-overdue consumer-grade workplace communications that their people are used to in their personal lives,” says Andrew O’Shaughnessy, CEO, Poppulo. “The ability to connect and engage with every employee, and to give them a sense of belonging and purpose, has never been as critical as it is right now because of how radically the workplace has changed – and that’s where internal communication is critical.”

The combined company will maintain operations out of offices in Denver, CO, Boston, MA, Cork, Ireland, and Luton, UK and sell to customers in more than 80 countries. The companies will maintain their current operations for a period of time, with the primary focus over the coming months to build strong integration between the FWI Cloud and Poppulo platforms to ensure the best possible customer experience as enterprises look to equip their teams with the targeted, relevant information they need to achieve success.

“Four Winds and Poppulo are both committed to empowering employee-centric internal communications, with technology that enables the creation and distribution of content across channels and both in and out of the office to ensure employees are informed, engaged and equipped to do their job effectively,” says Patrick Severson, Senior Managing Director at Vista Equity Partners.

FWI expects the transaction to close early in the second quarter of 2021. Terms of the deal will not be disclosed. Spurrier Capital Partners served as financial advisor to FWI. For Poppulo, Shea & Company served as financial advisor. Kirkland & Ellis LLP and McCann Fitzgerald served as legal counsel for FWI. For Poppulo, Ronan Daly Jermyn, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, served as legal counsel.

Very interesting. This would seem to make quite a bit of sense, as a tie-up between companies. Poppulo is totally about workplace messaging and FWI has been making that a core focus.

Poppulo is about emails and smartphones, but large screens are not touted as end-points for content. The tie-up with FWI means a workplace gets much more comprehensive coverage. If people don’t read the email or see the message on their phone, it will be hard to miss the key messaging on screens.

Road trips to Cork would be fun!