Background: Zendesk is a tech company that creates customer service tools for business (i.e. when you want to complain to an online chatbot...it's very possible you're using a Zendesk tool). The company is now worth more than $16 billion.

What happened: Momentive owns SurveyMonkey - the online questionnaire platform that helps businesses gather feedback from customers. Zendesk is set to buy Momentive in a deal valued at around US$4.13 billion.

What else: Zendesk says the deal will help the company expand its consumer analytics biz...but shareholders of both companies just weren't keen. Zendesk shares plummeted around 16%, and Momentive shares fell 7.3% on the news. Talk about reading the room.

So what's the key learning?

💡Merger and acquisition deals can be derailed by investor sentiment.

💡When share prices fall after an announcement like this, it means investors don't value the company's shares as much as they did prior to the announcement. And sometimes, it can cause businesses to not go ahead with the deal... just to keep shareholders happy.

💡Just last month, this happened with PayPal and Pinterest. Investors reacted poorly to the news...so PayPal backed off from the deal. In this case, it looks like the deal is going ahead.