In October, the social media software company hired Goldman Sachs to look into what price it could expect to be valued at in the case of its sale to a private-equity firm. Hootsuite talked to dozens of such firms, and some—like KKR & Co. and TPG Capital—indicated how much they might be willing to pay. Those offers came in well below the $1 billion the company was anticipating, so Hootsuite ended the process in late December 2018. (Globe and Mail)

Talking point: Three years ago, Hootsuite was a promising Canadian tech startup looking to enter public markets, something it never ended up doing. This recent potential sale process came about at a time of turmoil for public markets, when tech giants like Facebook have lost more than 20 per cent of their value. By 2017, there were questions around Hootsuite’s purported unicorn status, raising doubts that the company would go public any time soon. In August 2018, The Logic reported that Hootsuite was facing an exodus of at least eight senior managers between April 2017 and April 2018 due to challenges to its core business model after Facebook and Twitter made key changes to the way they deal with third-party platforms.