Atlassian 日前宣布以4.25亿美元收购了项目管理服务商 Trello 。本次交易绝大多数以现金交易完成（3.6亿美元），其余以限制性股票和期权支付。收购预计将于2017年3月31日前完成。这是 Atlassian 的第18次收购，也是最大的一次收购。 就像 Atlassian 收购的很多其他公司一样，公司计划保持 Trello 服务和品牌活力，目前用户应该还看不到任何即时的变化。
Atlassian 专注于开发软件工具，帮助企业 IT 部门、计算机程序员以及其他专业人士协同工作；帮助企业应用程序在互联网上应用，降低执照的成本，并且让企业员工在任何地方都能随意存储并访问文件。公司旗下具体产品包括：最受欢迎的团队工作计划和项目管理软件 JIRA，用于团队内容生产的软件Confluence，类似 Slack 的团队间实时通讯工具 HipChat 以及团队开发代码共享工具 Bitbucket。Atlassian 于2015年上市，被市场誉为“2015年技术行业最成功的IPO”。股票在上市首日上涨32%，公司市值达到57.8亿美元。
Trello 是在2011年的 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会上推出的，并在2014年作为一个独立公司从 Fog Creek 独立出来。Trello是一款个人工作和任务的在线管理工具，也推出了相应的 APP，Trello一个重要特征就是它的水平性（相关阅读：《从Trello说起：如果你的产品不够垂直细分》）。相对于垂直性，水平性意味着它可以被各个领域和专业的人们所使用，如Word处理器和Web浏览器，打破时间轴，更直觉自由的资料与任务分配。传统的事务管理工具一般都采用简单的文字形式，每个事项的边上配上一个勾选框，而 Trello 给普通的任务管理添加了更多的实物感。每个任务条实际上就是一张卡片，用户可以进行任意的拖动，并把它们放置到不同的栏目中。
Trello 是目前增长最快的项目管理服务公司之一，有大约1900万用户，员工人数不到100名，本次交易完成后，所有人都将加入 Atlassian。在从 Fog Creek 独立出来之后，Trello从BoxGroup，Index Ventures，Spark Capital 等公司筹集了1,030万美元。
本次收购具有以下几个特点：首先，Trello 将与 Atlassian 公司的 JIRA 产品配合使用，越来越多地针对非开发人员，同时，公司总裁 Jay Simons 着意开发 Trello，将投入更多的资源支持，并帮助扩大团队规模。Atlassian 核心项目管理服务 JIRA 中已经拥有一个类似 Trello 的看板（为了实现准时生产方式而控制现场生产流程的工具），尽管这只是 JIRA 服务中的一小部分，然而对于许多潜在用户，想要跟踪他们的项目，一个看板已经足够了。JIRA 还具有完整的问题跟踪服务报告和内部版本，企业可以在自己的服务器上运行。可以看出 Trello将进一步适应和完善 Atlassian 的整套生产力工具。
Trello 协作卡片。
此外，Atlassian 还利用其市场，为插件开发者建立了一个商店，未来，Trello 许多所谓的 “power-ups” 都会逐渐转移到那里。
还值得注意的是，两家公司都采取类似的营销方法，商业策略，有着相似的企业文化和发展目标。两家公司都更侧重于口碑推荐和免费增值模式，而不是传统的企业销售。同时，他们都希望达到每月1亿数量的活跃用户。为了实现这一目标，Atlassian 必须超越其传统的开发团队市场，并分布到其他垂直领域。 因此，毫不奇怪，该公司的在新闻发布会上特别提到了 Trello 在金融、人力资源、法律、营销和销售方面的业务团队的知名度，并指出50％的 Trello 用户在非技术部门中工作。
Atlassian 计划在1月19日报告其第二季度的业绩，届时很有可能会听到更多关于这笔交易的信息，以及公司如何计划整合 Trello 的服务。
When we founded Atlassian 15 years ago, it seemed obvious to us that software could help teams work better together. But in those days most software companies were focused on developing for personal productivity. We felt that using tools designed for individuals to accomplish teamwork is a bit like using scissors to mow your lawn. You can do it, but it’s a lot harder than it needs to be. That’s why we focused on building for teams from day one.
Fast forward to today and there are still surprisingly few companies building software for teams. One company that has had breakout success is Trello. Over the past five years, Trello has grown to over 19 million registered users by solving an important problem: capturing and adding structure to fluid, fast-forming
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Trello’s pioneering use of an intuitive visual system has been embraced by all kinds of teams to do everything from managing marketing campaigns to tracking action items from team meetings. Organizations in nearly every country and as varied as the Red Cross and Google have adopted Trello to get work done.
Today, I am thrilled to announce that we have entered into an agreement to acquire Trello and add their amazing product to our growing family.
Choosing the right tool for your team
Atlassian’s mission is to unleash the potential in every team. That’s a big mission. In
Trello
we found a group that is as dedicated to helping teams get stuff done as we are. In fact, we have identical milestones towards achieving our missions: for our tools to be used by 100M people.
Atlassian tools are built to help all teams organize, discuss and complete their work. By adding Trello to the Atlassian family, we’re giving teams more choice in the tools they use to support the way that they want to work.
Trello will become an important part of the Atlassian portfolio, offering a fun new way for teams to organize the often messy range of information that feeds into great teamwork. Its card system is intuitive, easy to use, and instantly familiar, which has made it extremely popular with teams across marketing, legal, HR, sales and beyond.
One of Trello’s strengths is its flexibility. You control how the board looks and operates so you can mold it to how your team works, and track progress in stages that reflect your processes. You can take this flexibility a step further by integrating the tools you already use with Trello as Power-Ups that extend the functionality of the boards to meet your team’s unique needs.
The
JIRA
