What made Smartsheet different from Excel and traditional spreadsheets?

Microsoft Excel is a general-purpose spreadsheet application — powerful for individual analysis but not designed for collaborative team workflows. Smartsheet addressed Excel's limitations for team work: real-time collaboration — multiple team members can work in the same sheet simultaneously; automated notifications — Smartsheet sends automated alerts when tasks are overdue, rows are updated, or approvals are needed; workflow automation — rules trigger actions automatically (assign tasks, send emails, update fields) without manual steps; forms and data intake — teams can create forms that feed data directly into Smartsheet; portfolio views — multiple project sheets can be rolled up into dashboards and portfolio views; cross-sheet references — data from one sheet can feed calculations in another; permissions and access control — different stakeholders can see only relevant information. For project managers, Smartsheet provides Gantt charts, resource management, and dependency tracking built on the familiar spreadsheet model. This 'spreadsheet-like but with workflow' positioning made Smartsheet accessible to users who found dedicated project management tools (Jira, MS Project) too complex.

What is a work management SaaS platform and why is the category competitive?

Work management SaaS platforms provide organizations with software to plan, track, execute, and analyze work — spanning project management, task tracking, resource planning, approval workflows, and collaboration. The category has become highly competitive because: universal applicability — every organization needs to manage work; the addressable market spans virtually every business; low switching cost — teams can adopt work management tools without significant IT involvement, making trial and evaluation easy (and competitive wins/losses more fluid); horizontal platform versus vertical project management — platforms like Smartsheet, Monday.com, Asana, and ClickUp serve generalized work management across industries; Microsoft bundling threat — Microsoft Projects, Planner, and Loop integrated into Microsoft 365 (which most enterprises already pay for) creates a free/bundled alternative that can displace paid work management subscriptions. The major players: Smartsheet (now private), Monday.com (MNDY, publicly traded), Asana (ASAN, publicly traded), ClickUp (private), Wrike (acquired by Citrix), Airtable (private), Notion (private), and Microsoft Planner/Project (part of Microsoft 365).

Why do private equity firms acquire publicly traded software companies?

Private equity firms like Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners acquire publicly traded software companies for several strategic reasons: Public market undervaluation — PE firms may believe public markets have underpriced a company's long-term value; taking it private allows capturing the full intrinsic value without public market volatility. Operational transformation — PE firms can implement significant operational changes (cost cuts, go-to-market strategy overhaul, pricing changes) that would be poorly received by public shareholders (who see quarterly earnings impacts) but create long-term value. Reduced investor pressure — private companies don't face quarterly earnings reports, analyst coverage, or activist shareholders; management can focus on multi-year value creation. Financial engineering — PE firms use leverage (debt financing) to amplify equity returns; the company's cash flow services the acquisition debt while equity value potentially increases. Exit optionality — PE firms typically plan for a 3-5 year hold before IPO-ing the company again or selling to a strategic acquirer. Vista Equity Partners specifically focuses on software companies and has developed frameworks for improving SaaS unit economics, sales efficiency, and customer success that it applies across its portfolio.

brimindinvest.com / compare / osp-vs-smarLIVE

SMSI

Smith Micro Software, Inc. · Technology - Telecom Software

$2.93

-25.82% this month

VERSUS

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COMPARE

SMAR

Smartsheet Inc. · Technology - Work Management SaaS

N/A

N/A this month

Scoreboard verdict

Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin

SMSI

0

SMAR

0

MIXED SETUP

Comparison scoreboard

MIXED SETUP

AI Score

SMSI 24.1

SMAR N/A

1Y Return

SMSI -34.16%

SMAR N/A

Fwd P/E

SMSI 2.93

SMAR N/A

Target Up.

SMSI +454.61%

SMAR N/A

Op. Margin

SMSI N/A

SMAR N/A

Metrics last refreshed: 6/20/2026

Quick take

SMSI vs SMAR Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside

SMSI (Smith Micro Software) and SMAR (Smartsheet) are both software companies but at very different scales and market positions — Smith Micro is a small telecom software company with carrier-distributed family safety apps and limited scale, while Smartsheet was a major work management SaaS platform serving 90,000+ organizations before being taken private by Blackstone and Vista Equity in 2025. SMAR is no longer publicly traded following the private equity acquisition.

SMSI vs SMAR is small carrier-distributed family safety software with telecom partner dependency (Smith Micro's white-labeled SafePath and CommSuite products distributed through T-Mobile and AT&T with limited direct consumer presence) versus market-leading work management SaaS taken private (Smartsheet's spreadsheet-familiar collaboration platform serving 75% of Fortune 500 now operating under Blackstone/Vista PE ownership following a 2025 take-private) — small telecom software versus major SaaS now private.

Live analysis · updated 6/20/2026

SMSI and SMAR are closely matched — they split the tracked metrics evenly.

Normalized 1Y performance

SMSI

SMAR

Not enough data to chart yet.

Recent returns

SMSI

SMAR

Analyst price targets & sentiment

SMSI · 2 analysts

Price target range

analyst low$12.50
analyst high$20.00
analyst mean$16.25
current price$2.93

+454.6% upside to analyst mean

SMAR

Price target data unavailable

N/A

Who should consider this stock?

SMSI may suit investors who:

→Want exposure to carrier-distributed family safety software with growth in SmithMicro's recurring subscription revenue as T-Mobile and AT&T expand their family safety app offerings
→See Smith Micro's small size and limited analyst coverage as creating potential for mispricing versus intrinsic value if carrier partner revenue expands
→Accept the significant carrier concentration risk and small company limitations as offset by the low absolute valuation and potential upside from new carrier partnerships

SMAR may suit investors who:

→Note that Smartsheet (SMAR) is no longer a publicly traded company — the company was acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in early 2025 and taken private
→Interested in work management SaaS should evaluate publicly traded alternatives including Monday.com (MNDY), Asana (ASAN), and Microsoft Teams/Project as the publicly available alternatives
→May have held SMAR before the take-private and received Blackstone/Vista acquisition consideration at the deal price

Performance & AI score

Metric	SMSI	SMAR
AI score	24.1	N/A
AI rank	#3267	N/A
Latest close	$2.93	N/A
1M return	-25.82%	N/A
6M return	+1.03%	N/A
1Y return	-34.16%	N/A

$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)

How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?

Period	SMSI	SMAR
1Y ago	$6.58K (-34.2%) started 2025-06-18	N/A
5Y ago	$142.23 (-98.6%) started 2021-06-18	N/A
10Y ago	$250.86 (-97.5%) started 2016-06-20	N/A

Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.

Valuation & upside potential

Metric	SMSI	SMAR
Market cap	$14.98M	N/A
Trailing P/E	N/A	N/A
Forward P/E	2.93	N/A
Price/Sales	0.88	8.25
EV/Revenue	1.05	N/A
Analyst target	$16.25	N/A
Target upside	+454.61%	N/A

Growth, profitability & risk

Metric	SMSI	SMAR
Revenue growth	-8.70%	N/A
Earnings growth	N/A	N/A
EPS growth	N/A	N/A
FCF margin	-15.58%	N/A
Operating margin	N/A	N/A
Profit margin	-165.34%	N/A
ROIC proxy	-102.16%	N/A
Return on equity	-102.16%	N/A
Dividend yield	0.00%	N/A
Beta	0.66	0.05
Debt/equity	20.59	N/A
Current ratio	1.37	N/A
Quick ratio	1.07	N/A

Drawdown & downside risk

Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.

1Y risk snapshot

SMSI max drawdown61.06%

SMAR max drawdownN/A

SMSI max wkly drop35.60%

SMAR max wkly dropN/A

5Y risk snapshot

SMSI max drawdown99.11%

SMAR max drawdownN/A

SMSI max wkly drop56.45%

SMAR max wkly dropN/A

10Y risk snapshot

SMSI max drawdown99.30%

SMAR max drawdownN/A

SMSI max wkly drop56.45%

SMAR max wkly dropN/A

Performance metrics by period

Period	Metric	SMSI	SMAR
1Y	Growth	-34.16%	N/A
	CAGR	-34.18%	N/A
	Sharpe ratio	-0.07	N/A
	Max drawdown	61.06%	N/A
	Max daily drop	36.70%	N/A
	Max wkly drop	35.60%	N/A
5Y	Growth	-98.58%	N/A
	CAGR	-57.29%	N/A
	Sharpe ratio	-0.43	N/A
	Max drawdown	99.11%	N/A
	Max daily drop	40.24%	N/A
	Max wkly drop	56.45%	N/A
10Y	Growth	-97.49%	N/A
	CAGR	-30.84%	N/A
	Sharpe ratio	-0.04	N/A
	Max drawdown	99.30%	N/A
	Max daily drop	40.24%	N/A
	Max wkly drop	56.45%	N/A

Business comparison

Category	SMSI	SMAR
Company	Smith Micro Software, Inc.	Smartsheet Inc.
Sector	Technology - Telecom Software	Technology - Work Management SaaS
Industry	N/A	N/A
Core business	Smith Micro Software provides software solutions to wireless carriers and cable operators — including SafePath family safety apps (location sharing, parental controls, driving safety monitoring marketed through carriers like T-Mobile, AT&T), network management software (CommSuite visual voicemail, carrier-grade messaging), and wireless modem software for connected devices. Smith Micro's software is typically white-labeled and distributed through carrier partners as part of their family plan and network service offerings.	Smartsheet is a cloud-based work management and collaboration platform — providing a no-code/low-code environment for teams to build workflows, project management, dashboards, and collaboration tools using a spreadsheet-familiar interface. Smartsheet serves 90,000+ organizations including 75% of the Fortune 500. Use cases include project management, process automation, resource management, and cross-team collaboration. Smartsheet was acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in 2024, taking the company private.
Investor focus	Investors track Smith Micro's recurring subscription revenue from carrier-distributed family safety and digital wellbeing apps, new carrier partner additions, subscriber count growth across SafePath and CommSuite, and profitability improvement as the company right-sizes its cost structure.	Smartsheet was taken private in January 2025 following the Blackstone and Vista Equity acquisition announced in 2024. Prior to going private: investors tracked Smartsheet's annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth, dollar-based net retention rate (expansion within existing customers), and operating margin improvement.

SMSI strengths

→Carrier distribution provides access to large subscriber bases without direct consumer marketing — when T-Mobile or AT&T offers SafePath (Smith Micro's family safety app) to their subscribers, Smith Micro gains millions of potential users without its own customer acquisition costs
→Family safety and parental controls have growing demand — concerns about children's smartphone use, distracted driving, and teen safety create structural demand for monitoring and management tools; demographic trends toward connected families support long-term demand
→Sticky recurring subscription model once subscribers adopt family safety tools — families that configure location sharing, geofencing alerts, and parental controls find these services difficult to discontinue; carrier subscription stickiness reduces churn

SMAR strengths

→Spreadsheet-familiar interface lowers adoption barrier versus specialized project management tools — Smartsheet's grid/spreadsheet interface is intuitive for users familiar with Excel; this reduces training time and accelerates enterprise deployment versus specialized tools that require significant workflow redesign
→High enterprise customer concentration and strong net revenue retention — Smartsheet's large enterprise customers expand usage over time; 130%+ net revenue retention at peak meant existing customer expansion drove significant incremental revenue
→Versatile platform applicable across industries and use cases — Smartsheet's configurable platform works for construction project management, marketing campaign tracking, IT service requests, clinical trial management, and hundreds of other use cases; versatility increases total addressable market

Risks to watch — SMSI

→Revenue scale is very small — Smith Micro's annual revenue is approximately $20-30M; this limited scale constrains R&D investment, market influence, and financial resilience
→Carrier partner concentration — Smith Micro depends heavily on a few carrier relationships (T-Mobile, AT&T); loss of a major carrier relationship would be devastating to revenue
→Competition from smartphone native apps (Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link) — Apple and Google embed parental controls and family location sharing directly into iOS and Android; these free native solutions compete with Smith Micro's carrier-distributed alternatives

Risks to watch — SMAR

→Smartsheet was taken private by Blackstone and Vista in 2025 — SMAR is no longer publicly traded following the acquisition; the company's trajectory as a private entity with PE ownership will differ from its public company approach
→Competition from Microsoft (Project, Teams, Loop) and Asana/Monday.com — the work management space is highly competitive; Microsoft's bundling of project features into Teams and 365 creates formidable competition
→Path to profitability as a private company — PE owners Blackstone and Vista will focus on operational efficiency and eventual exit via IPO or sale

Frequently asked questions

Family safety apps are mobile applications providing parents and families with: location sharing (see where family members are in real-time on a map); geofencing alerts (notifications when a family member arrives or departs a location); driving safety (speed monitoring, hard braking detection, phone use while driving alerts); screen time management (monitoring or limiting children's device use); content filtering (blocking inappropriate content categories); emergency SOS. Smith Micro's SafePath platform powers white-labeled family safety apps distributed by wireless carriers under the carrier's own brand — T-Mobile's 'T-Mobile FamilyMode' and similar programs powered by Smith Micro's underlying platform. Carrier distribution advantages: millions of families are existing carrier subscribers, giving Smith Micro distribution without direct-to-consumer marketing; carrier billing (adding $5-10/month to the monthly phone bill) reduces friction versus downloading an independent app and entering payment information; carriers co-market the safety features as part of family plan value. Smith Micro receives a per-subscriber fee from carriers rather than collecting subscription revenue directly from families.

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