- Strategic Acquisition by a Large Strategic Acquirer
- Expansion Capital without giving up Owner Equity
- Merger of Equals
- Geographic Expansion Through a Venture-Backed Acquisition
- Strategic Acquisition by a Large Public Company
- Strategic Acquisition by a Private Company
- Financial Acquisition by a Small Public Company
- Synergistic Venture-Backed Acquisition
Adventum served as the exclusive advisor to Automated Financial Systems Corporation (AFS) during its successful acquisition by SunGard. Automated Financial Systems Corporation (AFS) is a leading provider of front-office products for financial institutions. Since creating the first online trading system in 1994, AFS has provided innovative technology that helps empower financial professionals to grow assets, efficiently manage their customer base, and strengthen client relationships.
AFS solutions include the Investpoint broker workstation, Investor and Active Trader retail trading tools, Infostream streaming market data, and the Correspondent Clearing Portal. AFS solutions deliver advanced functionality such as basket trading, electronic account opening and portfolio rebalancing through a standards-based Web 2.0 browser interface. AFS solutions integrate with major back-office and market-data vendors.
SunGard provides an integrated suite of services to help advisors meet the needs of their clients, grow assets and capitalize on expanding opportunities in wealth management. SunGard helps organizations deliver on the promise of a more holistic and consultative client experience by providing an array of capabilities for client profiling and financial planning, asset allocation and portfolio management, securities processing and asset accounting, and consolidated client reporting and performance measurement.
"AFS is an exciting addition to our suite of wealth management solutions," said Gerard Murphy, president of SunGard's brokerage and clearance business. "AFS's proven frontoffice applications complement our existing WealthStation offering for retail brokerage, clearing, bank, trust, insurance and independent firms. The integration of financial planning, portfolio management, market data and advanced trading tools into a single solution will help firms to attract and retain reps and independent advisors. AFS products are turn-key solutions for SunGard customers since AFS is already integrated with several SunGard solutions including FAME and Phase3. SunGard's breadth of solutions, industry presence and global reach can help AFS better serve its customers."
The founders of AFS selected Adventum Group to develop a strategy to help them continue to accelerate their product market share. By joining forces with SunGard, the industry market leader, AFS solutions will become part of SunGard's WealthStation wealth management solution. This transaction provided the founders with advanced career opportunities, cash liquidity and participation in a well-funded international organization.
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Adventum Group was the exclusive strategic advisor to Focus Technology Group, Inc. (FTG) on its recent transaction with Pegasystems (NASDAQ: PEGA). FTG serves the financial community (Banks and Credit Unions) with software products that detect and prevent external and internal fraud, money laundering, uncover errors and omissions, meet regulatory compliance, and secure and audit applications. As a rapidly growing company with over 350 implementations both in the U.S. and abroad, FTG needed additional capital to fund its expansion and new product development plans.
Adventum Group applied a comprehensive SWOT analysis of FTG's 9-drivers of strategic value. The results showed FTG in a strong position for continuous success serving small-to-mid-sized financial institutions defined as, under $1.0 Billion in annual revenues. Whereas, the largest global banks primarily solve the fraud, AML, regulatory compliance, and audit requirements using internally developed applications. Adventum Group's recommendation was to identify a market leader that serves that large global bank market and achieve an agreement that raises growth capital without giving up equity. After reviewing, the market participants Adventum identify Pegasystems as a leading provider to the financial services market.
Adventum Group approached Pegasystems with a proposal that would extend its leadership position in the financial services market. As a result, Pegasystems entered into a license agreement involving the intellectual property of FTG. Pegasystems introduced a new Solution Framework for fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) investigations management for largest global financial institutions.
Willy Fox, Senior Director of Financial Solutions for Pegasystems stated, "Financial institutions today face unprecedented challenges in detecting and managing fraud and AML events. These challenges cannot be overcome by traditional systems that have created splintered environments for risk operations." He added that; "The recent addition of expertise and technology from Focus Technology Group is another demonstration of our ongoing commitment to delivering high value solutions in mission-critical areas like risk, fraud, and compliance."
Focus Technology Group now has additional growth capital to continue providing its sophisticated software products to the banking industry to improve business practices, detect preventable fraud, and secure core banking systems through improved audit capabilities - all without giving up owner equity.
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Adventum Group served as the exclusive advisor to DeVA Systems Group, Inc. during its successful merger with Aegis Associates, Inc. to create the new IT solutions company, Covisia Solutions, Inc. Following the merger, Covisia now offers a wider range of services in addition to increased support coverage to the New England area. The company also has the ability to offer complete, end-to-end application-delivery and virtualization solutions as well as managed services for businesses that need to augment or outsource IT operations.
Covisia Solutions, Inc. is now one of the leading providers of technology solutions and consulting services in New England. The combined company features nearly 40 years of IT services experience, 80 employees consisting primarily of senior systems engineers, and offices in Massachusetts and Maine.
The CEO and President of Covisia, Bill Fistori, commented that, "The merging of DeVA and Aegis into Covisia Solutions has created a very strong team with unprecedented synergies. We have considerably expanded our resources and bandwidth, which will improve our ability to grow and support our client base. The new company has a shared vision that came from the two original companies - every solution we build starts with a clear understanding of customer needs, goals and expectations."
The senior management of Covisia Solutions includes personnel from both former organizations. The company began integrating operations and staff from the two former companies to ensure a smooth and seamless transition for customers and partners. Solution offerings include application access; application and server virtualization; infrastructure networking; storage and disaster recovery; and managed IT support services.
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Adventum served as the exclusive advisor to Sceptre Database Consultants (Sceptre) during its successful acquisition by Sierra Atlantic, Inc. Sierra Atlantic is a leader in off-shoring enterprise applications, helping its customers optimize their investments in enterprise business application software from leading vendors. Sierra Atlantic was funded by prestigious technology venture capital firms.
Sceptre was founded in 1998 and was a certified Oracle Solutions partner and a leading provider of Oracle outsourcing and consulting services. With this acquisition, Sierra Atlantic expanded its on-shore operations while strengthening its east coast presence. "In Sceptre, we found the experienced management team, business reputation, East Coast presence, and financial services and retail industry expertise needed to further accelerate our Oracle practice," said Raju Reddy, CEO of Sierra Atlantic. "Our business models and high-integrity cultures mesh nicely, giving Sierra Atlantic the ability to accelerate its growth both on and offshore while providing superior enterprise application services."
"After completing our best year ever and growing by 40 percent, it was a strategic move for Sceptre to join forces with a seasoned offshore partner," said Peter Borans, President of Sceptre. "Sierra Atlantic provides us with an established offshore arm, as well as an excellent track record in providing global enterprise application services to software companies and their customers. By joining forces with Sierra Atlantic, we will be able to offer our existing client base, as well as new clients, a broader range of service offerings."
The founders of Sceptre selected Adventum Group to develop a strategy to help them continue to accelerate their growth and while gaining personal liquidity. This transaction provided the founders with an exciting career opportunity, initial cash liquidity and participation in a well-funded international organization, and Sceptre became the east coast operational arm with an emerging leader in their industry.
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Adventum served as the exclusive advisor to Apex Consulting Group (Apex) during its successful acquisition by CGI Group (NYSE: GIB). CGI is the fifth largest independent information technology services firm in North America.
Established in 1996, privately held Apex served clients mostly in the retail, utility and financial services sectors. Clients included New England companies such as the two largest financial services firms, the largest defense firm in Massachusetts, National Grid, NEBS and Sovereign Bank. The company was also the founder and primary sponsor of the New England Java Users Group (NEJUG), one of the largest Java user groups in the world with over 2,600 members.
This transaction allowed the two founders of Apex to bring expanded services to their clients. It also satisfied their personal objectives of gaining financial liquidity while advancing their careers. The changing IT consulting landscape due to increased competition from offshore IT consulting firms was impacting the firm's ability to predict its future competitive position.
"We were at the stage in our growth whereby we wanted to bid for bigger and broader opportunities," said Steve Maienza, founder and president of Apex. "Our clients were asking us to provide them with more services through a global delivery model. To do so, we sought a partner with whom we could grow. Not only do our services blend well with CGI's offering but they have operations in Canada and India. Now we can go back to our clients and add to what we are currently offering."
For CGI, this was a very small transaction that netted an important strategic asset. CGI acquired the right to become the sponsor of NEJUG, which provided CGI with a vehicle to immediately be considered as "thought leader" by 2,600 technology leaders of the largest corporations in New England. It also enabled CGI to leverage Apex's relationships and bring more services to that base of clients. During our Exit Planning, Adventum Group identified that the NEJUG sponsorship was a key intangible asset of Apex Consulting. Our research indicated that CGI was looking to grow in New England and the acquisition of Apex with its core clients and NEJUG sponsorship would accelerate CGI's plans. During our Dealmaking phase, we constructed and closed a transaction that fulfilled the goals of the Apex owners and provided the buyer with a valuable asset.
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Adventum Group served as the exclusive advisor to Sage Research, Inc. during its successful acquisition by Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB). Sage Research is a full-service market research and consulting firm providing global demand-side research to technology product and service providers. Sage Research will be integrated into CMB as a new Technology group to extend the breadth of CMB's established technology practice with deep knowledge of IT and telecommunications markets. The move also complements CMB's wide-ranging market research and consultancy services in the travel & hospitality, retail, advertising and financial services industries.
"The consistent feedback we receive from our clients is that our research, counsel and insight are more useful than that which can be found elsewhere," said Anne Bailey Berman, CMB president and cofounder. "The integration of Sage Research and its strong, focused industry knowledge and experience, coupled with the advanced market science tools and techniques from CMB, will only add to the value and impact of our offerings."
"We're thrilled about joining this outstanding organization," said Kathryn Korostoff, president of Sage Research. "The symbiotic nature of Sage Research and CMB lends itself to this natural pairing. Chadwick Martin Bailey embraces our vision as well as our dedication to client satisfaction, our people, and service excellence. By joining the CMB team, Sage Research will not only have access to greater resources, but we will be able to provide a more comprehensive suite of research approaches to our global clientele."
Since its formation in 1993, Sage Research has established a global reputation for developing innovative market research methods that offer its clients the competitive advantages of insight into customer attitudes, perceptions and behaviors. Sage Research's clients include Apple, BT Infonet, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and Sprint among others.
At the time of the transaction, Sage Research had experienced rapid growth. The founder is a dedicated market researcher who developed exceptional client relationships through high quality results oriented research. The founder asked Adventum Group to develop a strategic plan to help her gain access to greater corporate resources, gain liquidity and allow her to return to her core strengths. By joining with CMB, Kathryn accomplished her business objectives.
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Adventum Group served as the exclusive advisor to Back Bay Technology during its successful acquisition by Zanett, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZANE). Zanett is an industry consolidator led by a group of investment professionals who, since 1991, have formed and consolidated businesses around cutting-edge Internet, wireless, optical and telecom technologies. Zanett partners with the owners of profitable companies to identify highly fragmented markets, and then orchestrate a platform for consolidation.
Back Bay was founded in 1997 by two former consultants with Accenture. It provided J2EE-compliant consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, with a concentration within the financial service industry. Upon the closing of the transaction, Marc Maselli, President of Back Bay, stated, "We are extremely pleased to be joining the Zanett team. Their Commonwealth model allows culturally unique and client-centric companies like Back Bay to derive the benefits of scale while preserving their individual identity and core strengths."
Zanett CEO David McCarthy elaborated on the benefits of aggregating profitable, specialty IT firms within a public company by noting, "Being part of a publicly traded company will give Back Bay the stature to attract, motivate and retain key employees. Public equity ownership is just one of the ways Zanett is committed to providing for the common wealth of its staff and shareholders."
At the time of the transaction, Back Bay was experiencing rapid growth. The founders asked Adventum Group to help them develop a strategic plan to help them continue to grow while provide a vehicle for gaining liquidity. This transaction satisfied both needs by delivering the liquidity of the public markets and access to growth capital.
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Adventum Group served as the exclusive advisor to MicroData Software during its successful acquisition by IntelliReach Corporation. IntelliReach is the leading provider of corporate messaging solutions, managing millions of mailboxes around the world. Its products focus on the key challenges facing messaging managers, such as spam, viruses, e-mail compliance and archiving, secure messaging, system monitoring and reporting. It is a privately held company based Dedham, Massachusetts and backed by venture capital firms.
With its purchase of Topsfield, Massachusetts-based MicroData, IntelliReach bought its way into the Microsoft Exchange market. IntelliReach had focused on maintaining the e-mail infrastructure and monitoring the data flow. MicroData dealt in e-mail monitoring, allowing customers to monitor compliance with corporate e-mail policies. IntelliReach had focused mainly on the Novell space, where MicroData's focus was Microsoft Exchange.
"Our two companies complement each other because we can focus on the reporting of the status of the e-mail network while simultaneously monitoring and reporting on the content of that mail," said Sam Levine, president of IntelliReach. "From a practical perspective, we have talked to users and found that the combined reporting of our two companies helps indicate not only problems with employee abuse of the system but clogs at gateways that cost money."
Through the acquisition, IntelliReach's customer base expanded to include more than 1,500 organizations of sizes ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. The company now has nearly 2 million total mailboxes under management in 37 countries. "The Microsoft Exchange market is four times as big as the GroupWise and much more competitive," Levine said.
At the time of the transaction, MicroData had experienced rapid growth in sales. The founders were technologists who developed exceptional products but had little sales or distribution experience and no longer wanted to be involved in the operational challenges of a growing company. They asked Adventum Group to develop a strategic plan to help them gain access to a sales and distribution channel, gain liquidity and allow them to return to their core strength of product development. We pulled together this transaction in response to the founders' requirements.
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