Rapid analysis: Periscope is bought by mdf commerce — A look at the public-sector procurement market and prospects for this deal

Periscope Holdings, a public sector-focused provider of solutions for procure-to-pay and supplier management, has been acquired by mdf commerce, a provider of SaaS commerce solutions, for about $207.3 million (USD), according to a press release.

The Canadian B2B and business-to-government firm mdf commerce (formerly Mediagrif) has beefed up its North American presence by buying Periscope, the 20-year-old B2G commerce giant that operates out of Austin, Texas, and Utah.

Periscope’s business model offers both SaaS subscriptions as well as a transaction fee solution. With its consulting practice and solutions, it serves a range of government entities, like states, municipalities, special districts and universities.

The combined companies said they expect to serve more than 6,000 agencies with about 500,000 active suppliers.

They said they are “well-positioned to capitalize on governments’ critical need to rapidly digitize procurement workflows, as well as on massive increases in government spending arising from the approximately $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure spending bill,” which the US Senate approved this week.

Spend Matters has covered Periscope for years, including its 2014 M&A deal: Periscope Holdings (BuySpeed) Acquires BidSync – Background and Vendor Analysis.

In this Spend Matters PRO analysis, we’ll look further into what this deal means for Periscope and mdf commerce, including sizing the prize (total addressable market, or TAM).

This rapid analysis will briefly cover the following areas:

• Public-sector procurement spending and technology TAM estimate (US, Europe, and Global Market Analysis)
• Technology considerations (vs. private sector)
• Business models targeting public sector procurement including monetizing suppliers
• Public procurement competitive landscape introduction (North America and Europe)
• Mdf commerce’s market position and opportunity