Having lived inside of a sub-$40M, publicly traded, SaaS provider for a number of years, I can tell you how hard it is!

Today, there are a number of firms in this position and with the pressures of this economic slow down, it is hard just to survive.  As an example, take a look at our listing of Publicly Traded SaaS Index firms, and I can imagine all the firms with market caps less than $100M are having a hard time.

This last week, Salary.com filed a Shareholder’s Rights Plan, or as some refer to it, a poison pill.  Companies usually pursue a poison pill strategy when their market valuation falls to the point where the company becomes attractive for an unwanted suitor to come along and buy the company for a very low price.  Keep in mind that Salary.com is building a nice franchise in the emerging compensation software market.  In fact, the company just announced a new suite of products and a top industry award at the recent HR Technology show in October.  This makes for an attractive SaaS acquisition target.  Stay tuned.

I guess if you are a small fish in this market, and you want to survive, you better swim fast!