Atlassian buys 'asynchronous video' outfit Loom for almost $1 billion

Atlassian has announced the acquisition of asynchronous video outfit Loom, for $975 million.

Loom offers tools to create short videos that blend content captured by cameras and screen captures. The biz suggests its services as a way to add context to content – so that instead of emailing someone document, for instance, you send a link to a video that talks recipients through your work.

In a Loom video, Atlassian co-CEO Mike Canon-Brookes explained that "Loom helps bridge the collaboration gaps for dispersed teams. In deeply, deeply human ways."

Atlassian has imagined that once it integrates Loom, "engineers will soon be able to visually log issues in Jira, leaders will use videos to connect with employees at scale, sales teams will send tailored video updates to clients, and HR teams will onboard new employees with personalized welcome videos."

Loom co-founder and CTO Vinay Hiremath revealed that Atlassian is a big user of his company's services, and welcomed the deal.

"We are insanely hyped," he wrote. "We want people to look back on this moment and say 'Atlassian got a steal' and … 'how could I go back to Confluence/JIRA/etc. without video embedded into it?'"

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Embedded Loom videos are not yet possible. Cannon-Brookes said Atlassian will continue to sell Loom as a standalone product, adding "we'll be working hard to integrate it across our platform so you can add human context to the work you're doing in any of our cloud products."

Those last two words are important – Atlassian also has on-prem products, which clearly won’t be getting Loom integration. That's reasonable, as Loom is a cloudy company and bringing its functionality on-prem would be a non-trivial chore.

Atlassian expects the deal to close in the third quarter of its 2024 financial year, which ends on March 31. The collaboration specialist has warned the deal "is expected to be slightly dilutive to non-GAAP operating margins in fiscal years 2024 and 2025" but will cover most of the cost with cash. ®