enterprise software

CD&R Acquires KKR’s Epicor

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Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has agreed to acquire Epicor Software from KKR in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. KKR purchased Epicor in July 2016 from Apax Partners at an enterprise value of $3.3 billion.

Epicor is a provider of industry-specific enterprise software to more than 20,000 medium-sized businesses active in the manufacturing, distribution, services, and retail sectors. The company’s annual revenue is comprised of more than 73% recurring revenue. Epicor, led by CEO Steve Murphy, was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

“This is an exciting day for the entire Epicor family—employees, customers, and partners alike – and validates the company’s leadership position across markets we serve,” said Mr. Murphy. “We welcome this new partnership with CD&R, which shares our vision for growing the company, and I thank KKR for a highly successful partnership these past few years. We are excited to work with CD&R to increase investment in our market-leading product portfolio and to enhance our ability to support an ever-increasing range of customer needs.”

Upon the close of this transaction later this year, Jeff Hawn, an operating partner at CD&R, will serve as the chairman of Epicor. Mr. Hawn has more than 20 years of experience across a range of senior executive roles in software and technology-related businesses, including serving as chairman and chief executive officer of Quest Software, Vertafore, and Attachmate.

“Epicor’s reputation for quality and performance, and its impressive portfolio of next-generation cloud products, position the company well to accelerate growth in the coming years,” said Mr. Hawn. “We look forward to partnering with the Epicor management team to further expand Epicor’s product portfolio as well as make strategic acquisitions to meet customers’ evolving digital transformation needs.”

New York and London-based CD&R invests in European and US-based businesses. Since founding in 1978, the firm has invested $30 billion in 93 companies across a range of industries including numerous consumer health and medical device businesses.

“Four years ago, we embarked on an ambitious product modernization journey together with Epicor and are incredibly proud of the successes that the company has achieved to date, particularly with its recent cloud releases,” said John Park, chairman of the Epicor board and head of technology private equity at KKR. “We are confident that CD&R will provide valuable support as the company continues these product- and customer- centric investments to accelerate growth in the cloud.”

KKR (NYSE: KKR) makes private equity, fixed income, and other investments in companies in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. KKR was founded in 1976 and in addition to its New York headquarters has offices in 19 cities around the world.

Barclays, BofA Securities and Jefferies are the financial advisors to KKR and Epicor, and UBS Investment Bank is the financial advisor to CD&R.

Private Equity Professional | September 2, 2020

Vista Acquires Granicus

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Granicus, a provider of software used by government to increase efficiency and transparency, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Vista Equity Partners. Existing owner K1 Investment Management will retain a minority ownership in the company. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

Granicus provides a cloud-based platform that is used by more than 1,200 organizations and 63,000 government staff members to streamline workflows and establish more meaningful connections with citizens — online, over social networks and on mobile devices. Granicus’ software provides tools for live webcasting of public meetings and video archiving; agenda and legislative management; boards and commissions management; land management; and vital records management (birth certificates, death records, marriage licenses, divorce decrees). The company also provides a content management system built specifically for government website applications. Granicus, led by CEO Jason Fletcher, is headquartered in Denver (www.granicus.com).

According to Gartner, the government IT industry spent $6 billion last year on software and is expected to grow 42% through 2018. “We believe technology will play an increasingly important role both in enabling the legislative processes that keep our local communities, cities, and states running efficiently, as well as ensuring communication, openness, and transparency in the process,” said Brian Sheth, Co-Founder and President of Vista. “We are thrilled to partner with the Granicus team and invest in the company as a platform for continued growth.”

Vista makes equity investments in software, data and technology-enabled companies. The firm was founded in 2000 and has over 50 investment professionals operating out of San Francisco, Chicago and Austin (www.vistaequitypartners.com).

K1 Investment Management is a venture capital firm that focuses on investments in enterprise software companies. The firm is based near Los Angeles in El Segundo (www.k1capital.com).

“K1 is excited to partner with Vista to support the next phase of growth at Granicus,” said Neil Malik, Co-Founder and CEO of K1. “Since our investment in 2014, Granicus has solidified its position as the cloud software leader for government via strong organic growth, the acquisitions of AMCAD and Civica, and an operational revitalization that consolidated the company’s multiple offices to a single center in Denver. We believe Vista will be an outstanding growth partner for Granicus and K1 looks forward to continuing its support of the company.”

Shea & Company (www.shea-co.com), an investment bank with offices in Boston and San Francisco, was the financial advisor to Granicus. San Francisco-based Atlas Technology Group (www.atlastechgroup.com) was the financial advisor for Vista.

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 8-24-16

Vista Equity Partners to Acquire TIBCO

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TIBCO Software, a provider of infrastructure and business intelligence software, has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $24 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $4.3 billion, including the assumption of net debt. The total enterprise value of the transaction represents more than 18 times TIBCO’s EBITDA for the 12 months ending August 31, 2014.

“We look forward to working with the talented management team and employees to accelerate TIBCO’s growth and strengthen its leadership as a complete fast data platform,” said Robert Smith, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “We worked hard to make this deal happen because we understand the tremendous value that TIBCO can bring to its customers and the marketplace as a private company. We are incredibly excited to help TIBCO reach its full potential.”

TIBCO Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) is a provider of infrastructure and business intelligence software that is used to manage information, decisions, processes and applications in real-time. Customers have included Yahoo!, NASDAQ, Charles Schwab, Oracle, Major League Baseball, Golden State Warriors and Reliance Industries.  The company has more than 4,000 customers and is headquartered in Palo Alto with additional offices in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America (www.tibco.com).

Vista Equity Partners has more than $13 billion in committed capital and makes equity investments in enterprise software businesses and technology-enabled services companies. The firm was founded in 2000 and has over 50 investment professionals operating out of San Francisco, Chicago and Austin (www.vistaequitypartners.com).

There are no financing conditions associated with the proposed agreement. JPMorgan Securities and Jefferies Finance have provided committed debt financing to Vista in connection with the transaction.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies, JPMorgan Securities and Union Square Advisors are serving as financial advisors, and Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal advisor to Vista.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is serving as financial advisor, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is serving as legal advisor to TIBCO.

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 9-29-14

Vista Acquires DTI and Saxotech, Forms NEWSCYCLE

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Vista Equity Partners has completed two acquisitions with the purchases of Saxotech and Digital Technology International (DTI), providers of enterprise software for the news media industry. The acquired companies will be combined under a newly formed company, NEWSCYCLE Solutions.

“This is a rare and exciting opportunity to bring together the talents and technologies of two successful companies to create the strongest technology partner for all of our customers. DTI and Saxotech share mutual respect for each other and possess a combined history of 50 years of serving publishers throughout the world with innovative and customer-centric solutions,” said Dan Paulus, president of NEWSCYCLE Solutions and former president of DTI. “NEWSCYCLE Solutions is built to help news media publishers thrive in the dynamic environment for local news media.”

NEWSCYCLE Solutions provides technology services to the news media industry, including content management, digital advertising, circulation, and audience relationship management. The company’s products and services are used by media organizations to engage audiences through Web, print, mobile, and social media channels. The company’s US offices are in Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and Utah; with international offices in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Panama, Sweden and the United Kingdom (www.dtint.com) (www.saxotech.com).

“We are better together because we will offer the broadest range of publishing solutions and will have expanded resources to support current products and to deliver the next generation of solutions that publishers need to compete,” said Anders Christiansen, chief operation officer of NEWSCYCLE Solutions and former chief executive officer of Saxotech. “Our two companies also complement each other geographically which means that NEWSCYCLE Solutions is instantly competitive as a global player in the news media market.”

Vista Equity Partners has more than $7 billion in committed capital and makes equity investments in enterprise software businesses and technology-enabled services companies. The firm was founded in 2000 and has over 50 investment professionals operating out of Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco (www.vistaequitypartners.com).

“We are thrilled to be building a new and exciting business in NEWSCYCLE Solutions. The combined company’s foundation will be the strength of its people, products and high-quality customer bases,” said Alan Cline, Principal at Vista Equity Partners. “We see the formation of NEWSCYCLE Solutions as an incredible opportunity to innovate and evolve how the local news media marketplace is served. The combined company will have the scale, breadth and resources to support the industry and its technological needs in the years to come – a long-term win for all stakeholders.”

© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 7-23-13