Category Archives: M&A Activity

M&A Activity, Pamlico Capital, Securadyne Systems, Surveillance Specialties

Securadyne Systems Acquires Surveillance Specialties

Securadyne Systems, LLC  and Pamlico Capital announced today that they have completed the acquisition of Surveillance Specialties, Ltd., a  New England-based security systems integrator. The SURV acquisition is the second for Securadyne, which was founded in February 2012 in partnership with Pamlico.

“The acquisition of SURV, which enjoys a commanding market presence in New England, ideally complements our build-up strategy focusing on best-in-breed operating platforms,” explained Carey Boethel, President and CEO of Securadyne Systems. “The addition of SURV considerably expands our geographic reach and our ability to deliver high-end, fully integrated solutions in a number of key vertical markets,” Boethel added.

SURV was founded in 1986 as a covert surveillance company by Arthur and Joan Bourque. The company changed its business model to a full-service systems integrator in 1999. Since then, the company has achieved considerable and consistent growth, and has emerged as the top independently-owned and operated security systems integrator in New England. SURV currently has branch offices in Wilmington, MA and Portland, ME.

Arthur Bourque, President and CEO of SURV, stated “We were fortunate to have a number of viable strategic alternatives for our business, but it was clear that Securadyne represents the future of our industry and is the best possible fit for SURV’s employees, customers and shareholders. We’re very excited about joining the Securadyne team and the opportunities for growth that will be created by this partnership.”

Mr. Bourque will join Securadyne’s Board of Directors and be active in setting the business’s strategic direction and helping with future M&A activities. Justin Davis, Chief Operating Officer for SURV, will join the Securadyne Systems executive team and will be responsible for leading the company’s Northeast Region.

Stuart Christhilf, Principal at Pamlico, noted “We are excited to be partnering with Arthur, Justin and the SURV team, as their passion for integrity, quality service, and industry-leading technologies represent exactly what we are trying to build with Securadyne. We expect them to be valuable contributors as we look to expand the combined business going forward.”


Business process automation, EMEA, EQT Partners, M&A Activity, ONE Automation, UC4

EQT VI to acquire UC4 Software Group

EQT VI has agreed to acquire UC4 Software Group  from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, the founder Franz Beranek and management for an enterprise value of EUR 220 million.

UC4 is the world’s largest independent IT Process Automation software vendor. UC4’s ONE Automation platform delivers IT Process Automation helping organizations to manage increasingly dynamic and heterogeneous IT landscapes, and to migrate to cloud computing as the next generation of IT service delivery. The Company has recently complemented its product portfolio by offering Application Release Automation on its existing ONE Automation platform.

The Company has a strong and loyal customer base with roughly 2,050 blue chip customers including more than 70 of the Global Fortune 500 companies. The Company roughly generated revenues of EUR 62 million in the past fiscal year ending in April 2012 and is headquartered in Wolfsgraben (close to Vienna), Austria and Bellevue, US.

“We consider UC4 a highly attractive growth company and are impressed by its customer base and strong automation offering. The new Supervisory Board, consisting of a mix of highly relevant and experienced EQT Industrial Advisors, looks forward to supporting UC4′s management team in driving further expansion into the rapidly growing Cloud Automation market”, says Per Franzén, Partner at EQT Partners in Germany, Investment Advisor to EQT VI.

“We are very pleased to welcome EQT VI as our new owner and look forward to working together with EQT VI and the new Supervisory Board to realizing the growth potential of UC4. EQT’s industrial focus with a very strong line-up of Industrial Advisors will be of great value to UC4 and to us as a management team when developing the Company over the next years”, says Jason Liu, CEO of UC4.


Business process automation, EMEA, EQT Partners, M&A Activity, UC4

EQT VI to acquire UC4 Software Group

EQT VI has agreed to acquire UC4 Software Group  from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, the founder Franz Beranek and management for an enterprise value of EUR 220 million.

UC4 is the world’s largest independent IT Process Automation software vendor. UC4’s ONE Automation platform delivers IT Process Automation helping organizations to manage increasingly dynamic and heterogeneous IT landscapes, and to migrate to cloud computing as the next generation of IT service delivery. The Company has recently complemented its product portfolio by offering Application Release Automation on its existing ONE Automation platform.

The Company has a strong and loyal customer base with roughly 2,050 blue chip customers including more than 70 of the Global Fortune 500 companies. The Company roughly generated revenues of EUR 62 million in the past fiscal year ending in April 2012 and is headquartered in Wolfsgraben (close to Vienna), Austria and Bellevue, US.

“We consider UC4 a highly attractive growth company and are impressed by its customer base and strong automation offering. The new Supervisory Board, consisting of a mix of highly relevant and experienced EQT Industrial Advisors, looks forward to supporting UC4′s management team in driving further expansion into the rapidly growing Cloud Automation market”, says Per Franzén, Partner at EQT Partners in Germany, Investment Advisor to EQT VI.

“We are very pleased to welcome EQT VI as our new owner and look forward to working together with EQT VI and the new Supervisory Board to realizing the growth potential of UC4. EQT’s industrial focus with a very strong line-up of Industrial Advisors will be of great value to UC4 and to us as a management team when developing the Company over the next years”, says Jason Liu, CEO of UC4.


Cloud & IT Management, Log Insight, M&A Activity, Pattern Insight, Virtualization, VMware

Log Insight Acquired by VMware

Image representing Pattern Insight as depicted...Pattern Insight today announced that it has come to an agreement with VMware Inc. to sell its Log Insight product, together with its team and technology.

Log Insight is an analytics and log management platform that has the ability to analyze large amounts of machine-generated data in real time. It is used for operational analytics in traditional data center and cloud environments. It has the ability to discover emerging patterns and guide administrators to the root cause of problems.

For more details, read this post by the founder of Pattern insight.

For one analysis of VMWare’s deeper move into cloud management, read this TechCrunch take on the acquisition.


Avnet, M&A Activity, Pepperweed Consulting

Avnet Acquires Pepperweed Consulting

Image representing Pepperweed Consulting as de...

Avnet, Inc.  announced today that it has acquired Pepperweed Consulting, an IT enterprise management and integration provider. As an HP Software Elite Partner and winner of multiple HP Partner-of-the-Year awards, Pepperweed Consulting works with channel partners and customers to buy, deploy, support and manage HP IT Performance Suite, Converged Cloud and Insight software stacks. With more than 3000 successful engagements at Fortune 500 clients and large-scale government agencies, the company helps customers architect, implement and operate the right solution to meet their data center and cloud initiative goals on time and on budget. The company generated revenue of approximately US$12 million in the 2011 calendar year.

“The acquisition of Pepperweed supports our strategic focus of expanding our services and software portfolio to help drive growth for both our supplier and reseller partners,” stated Jeff Bawol, president, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. “The addition of Pepperweed Consulting will complement our industry leading vertical market practices by providing software and services to help our HP reseller partners deliver increasingly complex and customized IT solutions needed by customers in high growth markets such as government, healthcare, energy, financial and retail.”

Founded in 1996, Pepperweed Consulting provides multi-vendor technology expertise, services and support, complemented by internally developed components to meet each project’s specific goals. This acquisition will be integrated into the operations of Avnet Technology Solutions in the Americas.


M&A Activity, Penta Capital, Surrey, Venture Funding

Six Degrees Group Announces New Funding, Cloud Hosting Acquisition

Image representing Penta Capital as depicted i...

Six Degrees Group today announces it has raised £8 million in new funding from Penta Capital and that it has completed the acquisition of Cloud Computing Centre (CCC), a Surrey-based managed cloud hosting expert established in 1999.

CCC focuses on the cloud market and brings over 100 mid-market hosting customers who spend an average of £36,000 pa. The acquisition takes Six Degrees Group’s run-rate position to £50m revenue and £12m EBITDA. CCC’s cloud platform is highly complementary to the existing Six Degrees technology and they are also a Microsoft Gold Partner and Silver Hosting Partner, bringing incremental skillsets for Microsoft Hyper-V to the Group.

Commenting on the acquisition, Alastair Mills, CEO of Six Degrees Group, stated:

“I am delighted to welcome Cloud Computing Centre to Six Degrees Group. This is a significant acquisition for us as it reinforces our mid-market focus, strengthens our managed cloud hosting team and brings outstanding technical capabilities to the Group.”

In response, Keith Bates, CEO of Cloud Computing Centre, stated:

“This is an exciting day in the evolution of Cloud Computing Centre. We felt that the time was right to join forces with one of the fastest-growing managed data service providers in the sector, especially when we have so much in common. Joining Six Degrees Group will significantly strengthen our ability to win mid-market and corporate cloud hosting contracts and to deliver new services to our existing clients.”


M&A Activity, RealPage

RealPage Acquires Rent Mine Online

RealPage, Inc., a provider of on demand software and software-enabled services to the rental housing industry, today announced that it has acquired RentMineOnline Inc. (“RMO”), a software-as-a-service provider of social network marketing solutions for the multifamily rental housing industry (www.rentmineonline.com).  The acquisition will extend the Company’s LeaseStar™ multichannel managed marketing solution which enables property owners and managers to originate, syndicate, manage and capture leads more effectively and at less overall cost.

RentMineOnline helps property owners and managers generate leads by combining the success of online resident referral programs with the power of social networks, such as Facebook™, Twitter™ and LinkedIn™, as well as email.  Since the average social media user has over 150 Facebook™ friends and Twitter™ followers, social network resident referral campaigns are quickly becoming an extremely important source of leads for the rental housing industry.

“Adding a social network referral channel to our LeaseStar™ solution is expected to help increase the percentage of overall leads that a property can generate organically, reducing dependency on more expensive traditional listing services,” said Steve Winn, Chairman and CEO of RealPage.  “Social influence in the rental decision is proving to increase conversion rates, so property owners and managers are now using this type of tool to improve both the quantity and quality of leads that they receive. In addition, we expect social network recommendations to help improve search engine optimization of our LeaseStar™ websites.”

“We are excited to become part of the RealPage team,” said Ed Spiegel, CEO of Rent Mine Online.  “We have revolutionized the way property owners and managers utilize social media to drive demand reaching over 10 million unique friends since our inception.  We are delighted that our vision and dedication on this front will enable us to become part of the LeaseStar™ multichannel marketing solution which should transform the way property owners and managers solve the total rental housing demand equation.”


AutoDesk, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, iOS, M&A Activity, Mobile, Pixlr, Socialcam, Video

Autodesk Buys Socialcam for Mobile Social Video

Image representing Autodesk as depicted in Cr...

Autodesk Inc., has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Socialcam for a purchase price of approximately $60 Million. Socialcam is a popular mobile social video capture, editing and sharing app and service that was launched in 2011. This transaction is expected to close in Autodesk’s third quarter of fiscal 2013 (which ends on October 31, 2012) and is subject to customary closing conditions.

“Mobile computing, the cloud and social media are improving and changing the way people design, engineer and create projects,” said Samir Hanna, vice president, Autodesk Consumer Group. “Video is an ideal medium for professionals and consumers alike to communicate and share their design ideas. We are excited to have Socialcam join our growing portfolio of applications, services and communities for digital art, personal design and fabrication, home design and entertainment.”

Socialcam is a smartphone application and web-based service that makes it easy to capture, edit and share videos. The Socialcam app has been one of the most popular mobile video apps in the iOS App Store and Android marketplace with over 16 million downloads since it was first launched in 2011. Autodesk will prioritize support for the existing Socialcam community, while investing in scaling the platform and developing a more comprehensive set of tools for Socialcam users. Autodesk also plans to use the Socialcam platform to help make its Academy Award-winning technology for professional film and video creators more accessible to a broader audience.

“Socialcam shares Autodesk’s mission of helping everybody imagine, design and create a better world,” said Michael Seibel, Founder and CEO, Socialcam. “Autodesk has a proven track record of acquiring and scaling fast-growing, early stage consumer businesses while staying true to their core audience and vision. With products like Pixlr, SketchBook and 123D, Autodesk is empowering creativity in millions around the world by making their award-winning technology accessible to everybody. We’re excited to join them and introduce this global community to simple video creation, editing and sharing.”


Customer Relationship Management, M&A Activity, Mobile, Telecommunication, Xerox

Xerox Acquires UK-based WDS for Wireless Customer Experience Management

Xerox  has signed a definitive agreement to acquire WDS, a firm that provides technical support, knowledge management and related consulting to the world’s largest wireless telecommunication brands.

WDS uses a proprietary cloud-based platform called GlobalMineTM to capture, analyze and manage millions of technical support interactions across thousands of different mobile device types. WDS uses this data to help clients adjust, in real-time, any systemic issues and/or customer experience problems that their end-users may be experiencing with their devices or service.

Based in the United Kingdom, WDS has over 2,000 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

“WDS’s expertise in the telecommunications industry strengthens Xerox’s already broad portfolio of customer care solutions – differentiating us as a trusted partner for a rapidly evolving industry that requires reliable, accessible and scalable ways to support the complexity of their consumers’ needs,” said Chris Tranquill, president of the Xerox Telecommunications and Technology group.

Through its more than 48,000 call center employees who support clients in 150 locations, Xerox is a leading provider of customer care solutions, handling more than a million consumer interactions every day via the phone and Web.

Founded in 1995, WDS is led by CEO David Ffoulkes-Jones, who will continue with the company after the acquisition closes. “By focusing on the customer experience, wireless brands can drive greater loyalty and differentiation,” said Ffoulkes-Jones. “With Xerox, we now have the ability to accelerate our global expansion, add more value to our customers and deliver greater opportunities to our employees.”