ERP software company Workday has acquired a two-year-old startup - Pattern Technologies. According to Pattern’s co-founder and CEO Derek Draper LinkedIn’s post, he and the other two co-founders Zack Moy and Joshua Valdez will work for Workday.

Pattern is a California-based startup that offers online business workspace services. They developed a set of machine learning tools that analyze a sales representative’s email, calendar, and CRM activity to provide momentum signals about their pipeline of leads and enable the representative to understand and capitalize on changes in activities.

Earlier, Workday acquired Platfora (big data analytics) and Zaption (online learning) and embedded these services in their HCM solution platform. Through Pattern's acquisition, Workday aims to widen its business ecosystem by including more partners, developers, and independent software vendors 

Workday acquisition of Pattern also suggests the growing trend among Technology giants to invest in acquiring younger technology startups. Last year, Apple acquired a little-known start-up Tuplejump to expand its reach in AI landscape. The i-phone developer bought three artificial intelligence companies last year, the others being Turi and Emotient.  A key reason for this rising trend is the opportunity to break into new markets and ramp up their existing products. These M&As can further solve time-to market and talent issues far quicker than internal activities.

Source: TechCrunch