Breaking the ice on AppSpace’s acquisition of Igloo – Part 2

Igloo's history and predictions for the future

Posted on 14 January 2026 by Paul Carter

Hear from Paul Carter – Chairman at Mosaique – as he does a deep dive into the recent acquisition of Igloo by AppSpace and what this could mean for the future.

If you missed part 1, you can read it here first.

Where Igloo started

Igloo began as something quite different to what it became. Igloo began as an on-premises solution for the Canadian Public Sector to house resources. When the decision was made to turn it into a Software as a Service (SaaS) product, the code was reverse-developed, meaning that future functionalities were added on to the solution, to improve functionality from what was an ‘On Prem' product at the outset.

When Igloo Wasn’t the Right Fit

Of course, Igloo was a suitable solution for many companies, however room for growth, like any products that may struggle with their original framework, means they can be trickier to develop onto. For example, mobile responsiveness and enterprise integrations (such as Microsoft 365 and Google) have been pain points for some Igloo customers, who want their solution to scale as their digital infrastructure changes internally. In order to better equip Igloo for future clients, a number of SDK widget enhancements were required to improve the functionality, and to make new features possible. Furthermore design inflexibility was a challenge, meaning custom coding was required to make platforms on-brand and attractive for employees.

Mosaique’s involvement here as partners, was not only providing valuable technical support and consultancy to Igloo customers, but importantly acting as a firsthand team for the development of new SDK widgets and platform customisation, such as Confluence Search, Time Zones, Birthday Features, Product Search Filtration and more. With over 30 successful implementations, Mosaique have supported Igloo to grow, but always within the confines of what already exists. We not only have a deep knowledge and understanding of the Igloo solution, but were instrumental in pushing the art of the possible for Igloo, transforming capabilities across UI/UX design and platform customisation.

What does the acquisition mean for Igloo customers?

As can be expected, there is now a period of uncertainty as to what is coming next for Igloo customers. Understandably, customers need to understand – will the Igloo platform exist within the next 12 months or will an end of life announcement be made by AppSpace?

While most of the press releases or announcements I have read suggest AppSpace will continue to run Igloo as a standalone solution, the reality of continuing to do so – in my opinion – is questionable. I have certainly not heard that and AppSpace CEO, Tony DiBenedetto refers only to the teams merging:

“Appspace offers a robust intranet and communications platform used by many of the world’s largest companies. The addition of Igloo’s team brings complementary expertise in employee communication, culture-building, and digital workplace strategy.”

He goes on to further say:

"This acquisition is a perfect fit, aligning our visions and values. By bringing our teams together, we're expanding the reach of a platform that's already changing how workplace technology works and setting a new standard for how organizations connect with their people."

The second reference here being that the teams will merge, not the technology. If I am being completely frank – I don't think AppSpace would want to migrate Igloo’s legacy platform mentioned above into one holistic solution due to the potential development required to integrate. This raises the question of how long AppSpace will want to support Igloo’s legacy platform as a standalone solution? Suggesting to me that the overlap will be short term.

I write all of this with knowledge and context – that it’s a view – my personal view. There is much in the media right now that suggests both Igloo and AppSpace will coexist as Intranet platforms for the foreseeable future but only time will tell...

Blending Igloo and AppSpace

On a very positive note the mention of teams merging from both Igloo and AppSpace is, in my opinion, a great win for AppSpace. Igloo has an excellent reputation for its customer success and client management teams, and rightly so, this is well deserved.

In the time we partnered with Igloo, I dealt with a passionate team who put customer service and client-centric behaviour at the forefront of their technology offering. I can't help but think this culture was driven by the company's founder, Dan Latendre (a thought leader in the industry and a very charismatic person) but much of this I felt seemed to get lost when they had their $47m (US) from investment company Frontier Capital.

The business challenges customers face and whether they migrate from Igloo to an AppSpace solution is indeed a big question for Igloo’s existing customers, and one worth investigating to ensure informed decisions can be made.

Next time:

In my next blog, I will discuss the pros and cons of moving away to another intranet solution, and will provide some recommendations and considerations based on Mosaique’s 10+ years in the intranet space. I hope that my insights will prove useful as we navigate these changes and await further news.

Paul Carter