Atlassian

Atlassian. Atlassian is an Australian software company that develops products for software developers, project managers, and other information technology professionals. Founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, the company is known for its collaboration software and has grown to become a major player in the global technology industry. Its headquarters are located in Sydney, with significant offices in cities like San Francisco, Amsterdam, and Bengaluru.

History

The company was founded in 2002 by university friends Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, who started the business with a $10,000 credit card debt. Its first product, Jira, was initially developed as an issue tracking application for software teams. The company adopted a unique bottom-up marketing strategy, relying on word-of-mouth and low-cost online sales rather than a traditional sales force. Significant milestones include opening its first international office in Poland in 2006, launching the Atlassian Marketplace in 2012, and its successful initial public offering on the NASDAQ in 2015. The company's growth has been marked by a strong corporate culture and numerous strategic acquisitions to expand its product portfolio.

Products and services

The company's core product suite is centered on team collaboration and software development tools. Jira exists in several editions, including Jira Software for agile project management, Jira Service Management for IT service management, and Jira Work Management. Confluence is a widely used wiki and knowledge management platform. Other major products include Bitbucket for source code management and Git repository hosting, Trello for visual project management using kanban boards, and Opsgenie for incident management and alerting. These tools are often integrated and are available through both cloud computing and on-premises software deployment models, serving millions of users at organizations like NASA, Tesla, Inc., and the Red Cross.

Corporate affairs

The company operates under a unique dual-CEO structure led by its founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. It is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TEAM and is a constituent of the S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia. Its corporate philosophy emphasizes values such as "Open Company, No Bullshit" and "Build with Heart and Balance." The Atlassian Foundation focuses on philanthropic efforts, particularly in education and addressing social inequality. The company is also known for its annual Team '23 user conference and for consistently being ranked highly on lists of best places to work by publications like Fortune (magazine).

Acquisitions

The company has grown its capabilities and market reach through a series of strategic acquisitions. Key purchases include HipChat in 2012, a team chat application later replaced by Stride and ultimately Slack integration. The 2017 acquisition of Trello from Fog Creek Software for $425 million significantly expanded its work management offerings. Other notable acquisitions include Statuspage in 2019 for status communication, Opsgenie in 2018 for incident response, and Chartio in 2021 for data visualization. In 2022, it acquired the video messaging platform Loom to enhance asynchronous collaboration within its ecosystem.

Criticism and controversies

The company has faced criticism on several fronts, including data privacy concerns and challenges with product pricing changes. A significant 2022 outage of its cloud computing services affected thousands of customers, including major clients like T-Mobile and American Airlines, raising questions about service-level agreement reliability. The company's decision to end support for its popular server products, pushing users toward more expensive cloud computing subscriptions, was met with backlash from parts of its user base. It has also been involved in legal disputes, such as a 2018 lawsuit with App Annie over data scraping, and has faced scrutiny over the security of its platforms from researchers at organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Category:Software companies of Australia Category:Companies listed on NASDAQ Category:Technology companies established in 2002