Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, a portfolio company of Silver Lake since June 2015, has signed an agreement to acquire CAPS Payroll, a provider of payroll services to the entertainment industry. CAPS Payroll is a portfolio company of Uni-World Capital.
CAPS Payroll provides payroll and other human resources outsourcing services to multiple entertainment end markets including commercial production, venues, music tours, live events, unscripted television and independent film. The company, founded in 1991, is led by CEO Doug Sylvester and has offices near Los Angeles in Culver City, CA and New York (www.capspayroll.com).
Cast & Crew Entertainment Services is a provider of payroll and other business process outsourcing services to the film, television, live entertainment and commercial production markets in North America. Production companies use the company’s services to manage payroll processing and related regulatory filings; production accounting software; workers’ compensation insurance coverage and claims administration; residuals processing; procurement and purchasing services; labor relations; and production incentives guidance and reporting. Cast & Crew is headquartered in Burbank, CA and has field operations in New York, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Detroit, Philadelphia and Wilmington. Canadian offices are located in Toronto and Vancouver. The company was founded in 1976 (www.castandcrew.com).
“Cast & Crew and CAPS are an ideal fit, with complementary client bases, compatible technology portfolios and consistent corporate cultures,” said Eric Belcher, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cast & Crew. “This combination will offer clients the industry’s best suite of technology-enabled solutions and expand support, training and career opportunities for employees of both companies.”
This is the second add-on acquisition completed by Cast & Crew under Silver Lake ownership. In February 2016 the company acquired Final Draft, a provider of screenwriting software based in Calabasas, CA (www.finaldraft.com).
“Silver Lake’s mission is to invest behind the growth of technology leaders like Cast & Crew,” said Joe Osnoss, Managing Director at Silver Lake. “We are enthusiastic about the compelling combination with CAPS, and our follow-on equity investment underscores our confidence in what this platform can offer to the dynamic media and entertainment marketplace.”
Silver Lake invests in technology and technology-enabled industries. The firm has over 100 investment professionals located in New York, Menlo Park, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo and has $26 billion in assets under management and committed capital (www.silverlake.com).
Uni-World Capital invests in companies with EBITDA of $4 million or higher and enterprise values from $20 million to $150 million. Sectors of interest include consumer products, food, value-added manufacturing, financial services, and business services. The firm is headquartered in New York (www.uniworldcapital.com).
“We partnered with CAPS co-founder Eric Capogrosso in May 2011 to accelerate the growth of CAPS and enhance its strategic position through investments in technology and people to help take the business to the next level,” said Chris Fuller, Managing Partner of Uni-World Capital. “Those efforts were quite successful, and I am pleased to see CAPS now joining the Cast & Crew family, where CAPS will be optimally positioned to continue to thrive.”
Houlihan Lokey (www.hl.com) was the financial advisor to CAPS and Kaye Scholer (www.kayescholer.com) provided legal counsel. Cast & Crew was advised by Kirkland & Ellis (www.kirkland.com).
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 6-21-16
