The Riverside Company has sold its ownership interest in Emergency Communications Network to Veritas Capital. The company’s SaaS-based mass notification services allow government and commercial clients to rapidly communicate with constituents across numerous channels to facilitate awareness of emergencies and other important events.
Emergency Communications Network (ECN) serves approximately 2,200 national customers in the government, technology, healthcare, utility, aerospace, industrial, manufacturing and financial services sectors. The company was founded in 1996 and is based northeast of Orlando in Ormond Beach, FL (www.ecnetwork.com).
Riverside acquired ECN in 2011 and expanded the company through both organic growth and six add-on acquisitions. According to Riverside these efforts extended ECN’s market presence in both the government emergency mass notification market and the commercial notification market. During the ownership term, ECN’s sales grew by 93% and EBITDA grew 112%.
“ECN has a great management team that shared our ambitious goals for the company,” said Riverside Partner Chris Jones. “Through successful organic and inorganic growth initiatives, we were able to build a company with improved scale, geographic reach, customer diversification and product capabilities. ECN thrived during Riverside’s ownership period.”
“Chris and the team at Riverside shared our vision for ECN and helped us better serve more customers in more markets than ever before,” said ECN President David DiGiacomo. “We’re delighted with the results and excited about the next phase of our growth.”
Acquiring ECN from Riverside is Veritas which invests in companies that provide products and services to government and commercial customers worldwide including those operating in aerospace & defense, healthcare, technology, national security, communications, energy and education. The firm is headquartered in New York (www.veritascapital.com).
“ECN is an exceptional business with a long history of providing market-leading critical communications solutions to both government and commercial markets,” said Hugh Evans, a Managing Partner of Veritas. “We are thrilled to be partnering with David DiGiacomo and his high-caliber management team in continuing to provide best-of-breed subscription notification software solutions to state and local government customers and as they work to leverage ECN’s proprietary technology and expand further into commercial, federal government, healthcare and other adjacent markets.”
Working with Mr. Jones on the transaction for Riverside were Vice President Brad Roberts, Operating Partner George Benson and Senior Associate Max Moehlmann. Riverside Origination Principal Amy Margolis worked with the deal team to facilitate the sale of the business.
The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm focused on investing in and acquiring growing businesses valued at up to $300 million (€200 million in Europe). Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 380 transactions. The firm’s international portfolio includes more than 70 companies. Riverside is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London (www.riversidecompany.com).
Kirkland & Ellis provided legal advice to Riverside and William Blair served as financial advisor on the transaction.
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 6-15-15