Prudential Financial’s $2.35 Billion “Big Tech Bet Went Sour”

— April 29, 2022 —
Published in REPORTS
on GeekWire.com
Written by Kurt Schlosser

When Prudential Financial acquired Seattle-area startup Assurance IQ for $2.35 billion in September 2019, the deal was heralded as one of the largest acquisitions in Seattle tech history. Two and a half years later, a new report looks into how the legacy insurance provider’s “big tech bet went sour.”

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Prudential’s bid to strengthen its digital capabilities by grabbing the then-3-year-old Bellevue, Wash.-based startup hasn’t lived up to expectations.

It clearly has underperformed our financial expectations in the near term, but this is a strategic purchase that I would say we need to evaluate over the next five to 10 years. We wish we would have paid less.

Andy Sullivan, Head of Prudential Financial’s International Businesses

The report cites analysts who have called the deal “a head scratcher,” “a really poor acquisition” and “value destroying.”

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