​Atlassian extends HipChat reach with Hall acquisition

Atlassian has acquired real-time chat and messaging app Hall for an undisclosed amount to grow the support of the company's team communications platform, HipChat.

Atlassian said it plans to draw on Hall's ability to serve general business teams in the financial services, creative agencies, professional services, marketing, real estate, technology, and media and entertainment industries.

As part of the acquisition, existing Hall customers including Amazon.com, JC Penny, NetApp, and Intuit will be transitioned over the coming months to HipChat. The Hall team will join Atlassian, and continue to be based out of San Francisco.

Atlassian president Jay Simons said acquiring Hall as part of the HipChat platform will accelerate the company's ability to serve more teams within industries.

"Hall shares our belief that both form and function matter -- even in enterprise software," he said. "They have amassed an impressive set of customers by thinking not just about what the product can do, but also the overall experience of using it based on the specific needs of different types of teams and industries.

Atlassian boasted that HipChat was originally adopted by technical teams, and more recently by non-technical teams. HipChat has grown more than 50 percent over the past six months, the company said.

In April, Atlassian also acquired French video conferencing firm Blue Jimp in a bid to expand its video capabilities as a way to further broaden its HipChat offering.

Bernardo de Albergaria, Atlassian's collaboration business vice president and general manager, said communication apps such as HipChat are reaching a tipping point.

"It took three years for 1 billion messages to be sent over HipChat, one year from that to get to 3 billion, and less than six months to surpass 5 billion messages sent. Even with that growth, we've just barely scratched the surface," he said. "People are ready for a much more efficient way to communicate with co-workers."