Yardi Acquires Workplace Services Vendor CloudVO

There are three typical reasons why an acquisition takes place: the acquired company has expertise the acquirer wants, the move expands the range of customers and business partners for non-organic growth, and the acquirer eliminates a competitor.

It seems like Yardi may have accomplished all three in its acquisition of CloudVO. The former called the latter “the San Francisco-based online reseller of virtual offices, meeting rooms and other workplace services” in a press release announcing the transaction.

“We have closely followed CloudVO’s progress for many years now, and it seemed that the time was right to incorporate their assets and intimate knowledge of coworking operators into Yardi. We are looking forward to continuing this journey with Laurent and his team,” said Rob Teel, Yardi president of commercial, in the release.

CloudVO has, at least up to now, described itself as a resource “where you can access state-of-the-art workplace services for large or small companies on a subscription or pay-per-use basis” across a “global network of almost 1,000 carefully vetted flexible office locations with over 50,000 private offices and meeting rooms to choose from.”

The office locations, “carefully selected for their highly professional services and amenities,” include “preferential access to close to 3,000 day offices and meeting rooms in a shared office location.” The services and amenities are supposed to include reliable Wi-Fi, presentation tools, on-site receptionists, prime locations, and high-quality buildings. That would dovetail with the general office strategy of counting on a flight to quality as traditional occupancy fails to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

Then there are virtual offices, with prime business addresses, building directory listings, digital mailboxes, and traditional mail and courier services. Clients can purchase local phone numbers and live answering services, with personalized greetings and call screening during normal business hours. “Our virtual offices give you the option to work in our professional day offices or conduct important business meetings in our conference rooms, with professional staff to greet your guests, enterprise-grade Wifi, and all the presentation equipment you need,” CloudVO said. “Everything at a fraction of the cost of a full-time office.”

Yardi’s move is a continuation of its efforts in coworking and flex office space. Last July, the company acquired CoworkingMag.com, a content site, following the established trend of companies using general content, rather than direct sales materials, to bring in prospects and create authority positioning. It also launched its new CoWorkingCafe.com site, to let clients book conference rooms and private offices in real time.

The Yardi press release quoted Laurent Dhollande, CEO of CloudVO, as saying, “We are thrilled that CloudVO is now part of Yardi. Our partners will benefit from the Yardi listing service with infinitely more reach and strength than CloudVO could provide on its own, with seven online listing sites that combine over 3 million visitors monthly. Our customers will be exposed to a larger inventory and better choices for their online bookings and purchases of workplace services, including meeting rooms, private offices and virtual offices.”