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Do we like Zendesk?

Customer-service and support software (now pushing AI agents), headquartered in San Francisco, USA; founded in Denmark.

Our score: 6 out of 10. A mainstream business-software firm with no fines or regulator action in our searches. The old breach suits were dismissed, but private-equity ownership and layoffs keep us from rating it higher.

Zendesk makes the software that companies use to run customer support. It was founded in Denmark and is based in San Francisco. Mikkel Svane was founder, chairman and CEO when the company was sold in 2022.

In 2022 it went private in a roughly $10.2bn cash deal led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira. Abu Dhabi's ADIA and Singapore's GIC were also in the group. Shareholders were offered $77.50 a share.

Drama so far: investors sued, alleging Zendesk misled them about a data breach. A federal court dismissed the suit in 2020, and the Ninth Circuit upheld that in March 2022. A court found Zendesk didn't know of the breach until September 2019.

After the buyout it filed a WARN notice for 84 San Francisco staff in early 2023. Tom Eggemeier, a former Permira partner, took over as CEO and is now pushing AI agents and pricing by resolution. Our score is 6: no big scandals, but not much to cheer about.

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