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A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

reuters.com

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Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#31

Post by hisnameisjimmy »

pawelduda wrote: post #2

Thoughts on possible implications for users in foreseeable future? We built a lot using dbt and can't really think of going back or switching to alternatives

Full disclosure: I am a PM at Fivetran who is very excited about this.

We are fully committed to open source dbt and don't want to build a 'walled garden'. Interoperability is one of the key value propositions of both Fivetran and dbt. While I'm biased, I think the main implications for users is that their favorite tooling will be with one vendor who cares about what makes them great.

You can read a bit more here: https://www.fivetran.com/blog/the-era-of-open-data-infrastru...

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#33

Post by npalli »

karakanb wrote: post #30

Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of a dbt alternative, Bruin. ( https://github.com/bruin-data/bruin ) I think consolidation in the space has been coming for quite some time now and this merger only confirms what us, along with many others, have been saying: the data tooling is in a miserable state and we had to glue together a bunch of different tools that don't work with each other. At this point, I think it is quite…

How will Fivetran and dbt who are detested for being overpriced and underfeatured in the segment they are supposed to be good at (ETL/ELT) be taking on being a datalake? That's orders of magnitude more complex in engineering and operating and they have no experience. This is really a play to consolidate, get rid of duplicate functions and provide a better experience to customers.

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#34

Post by drob518 »

ants_everywhere wrote: post #21
drob518 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the first thought I had, too. When the dot-com bubble burst, every VC was slapping companies together to try to forestall the black mark of having a “failure” and balance sheet write off that they would have to show the LPs (investors) in the next LP meeting. It got so bad that someone described it as “tying together two rocks and seeing if they will float.” Needless to say, most didn’t. So, this makes me wo…

is this why Reddit and Infogami merged?

I don’t know

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#35

Post by taude »

karakanb wrote: post #30

Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of a dbt alternative, Bruin. ( https://github.com/bruin-data/bruin ) I think consolidation in the space has been coming for quite some time now and this merger only confirms what us, along with many others, have been saying: the data tooling is in a miserable state and we had to glue together a bunch of different tools that don't work with each other. At this point, I think it is quite…

With Snowflake's new OpenFlow offering based on Apache Nifi, Snowflake will be able to become Fivetran faster than Fivetran can become Snowflake/Databricks, though....

Thoughts?

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#36

Post by moltar »

karakanb wrote: post #30

Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of a dbt alternative, Bruin. ( https://github.com/bruin-data/bruin ) I think consolidation in the space has been coming for quite some time now and this merger only confirms what us, along with many others, have been saying: the data tooling is in a miserable state and we had to glue together a bunch of different tools that don't work with each other. At this point, I think it is quite…

They also acquired Census recently - reverse ETL.

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#37

Post by vovavili »

globular-toast wrote: post #15
hn1986 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the concern is that dbt-core will become stagnant.

What's the problem specifically? Are you banking on some future features? Can't fix the bugs yourself? Worried it won't be compatible with future data warehouses? I know people don't like it these days, but you can just continue to run old software.

dbt in particular is effectively useless without maintained and up-to-date connectors to your particular database.

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#38

Post by karakanb »

taude wrote: post #35
karakanb wrote: post #30

Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of a dbt alternative, Bruin. ( https://github.com/bruin-data/bruin ) I think consolidation in the space has been coming for quite some time now and this merger only confirms what us, along with many others, have been saying: the data tooling is in a miserable state and we had to glue together a bunch of different tools that don't work with each other. At this point, I think it is quite…

With Snowflake's new OpenFlow offering based on Apache Nifi, Snowflake will be able to become Fivetran faster than Fivetran can become Snowflake/Databricks, though.... Thoughts?

OpenFlow feels like an attempt at keeping customers within Snowflake boundaries, and while it might work for some, I see no way Snowflake being able to keep up with the data integration needs unless they allow another way of extending their capabilities other than pre-built integrations.

On the other hand, I do agree with you that it is quite a big challenge for Fivetran to try and become Snowflake.

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#39

Post by karakanb »

npalli wrote: post #33
karakanb wrote: post #30

Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of a dbt alternative, Bruin. ( https://github.com/bruin-data/bruin ) I think consolidation in the space has been coming for quite some time now and this merger only confirms what us, along with many others, have been saying: the data tooling is in a miserable state and we had to glue together a bunch of different tools that don't work with each other. At this point, I think it is quite…

How will Fivetran and dbt who are detested for being overpriced and underfeatured in the segment they are supposed to be good at (ETL/ELT) be taking on being a datalake? That's orders of magnitude more complex in engineering and operating and they have no experience. This is really a play to consolidate, get rid of duplicate functions and provide a better experience to customers.

This seems to undermine the engineering muscle these companies have. Fivetran is well-capable of building a query engine, and with this merger, they also get access to SDF's query engine. They have the engineering capabilities, as well as the capital to attract the talent where needed.

I would not underestimate any of these players in the space.

Re: A16Z-backed data firms Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal

#40

Post by tomwphillips »

Not that surprising. How many millions has been piled into dbt Labs?

dbt Cloud is an uncompelling product. Fivetran is convenient but absurdly expensive. Now dbt core development is just another marketing cost for Fivetran.

I'd really love to see everyone move on from the "modern data stack". dbt is a sticking plaster to a problem caused by orgs aggressively adopting SaaS products and choosing distributed software architectures without any thought about how to deal with the problem that your data models don't fit together and data is stored in 30 different places.

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