Tag Archives: Information technology

Blackstone to Take Majority Stake in MagicLab, Owner of Bumble and Badoo, at $3 Billion Valuation

Blackstone

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) announced today that funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) are taking a majority stake in MagicLab, which builds and operates leading dating and social networking apps, including Bumble and Badoo. The transaction values the company at approximately $3 billion.

Founded in 2006 by Andrey Andreev, MagicLab helped invent how people meet in the modern, mobile age. MagicLab’s suite of brands has connected and transformed the lives of over 500 million people around the world across dating, social, and business. The group shares a foundation of technology, talent, and experience to constantly innovate new ways for people to meet and create life-changing moments by building relationships. Over his career, Mr. Andreev has been at the forefront of innovation in the dating industry and has continued to invest in finding the most talented entrepreneurs and tech visionaries to mentor.

As part of the acquisition, Mr. Andreev will be selling his stake and stepping down from the business. He will be replaced as CEO by Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO of Bumble, who, together with Blackstone, will work to accelerate the business’ growth even further.

Commenting on the transaction, Andrey Andreev said: “Blackstone presented MagicLab with a great opportunity to further develop the brands and platform, and I am confident Blackstone will take MagicLab to the next level in terms of growth and expansion. I am incredibly proud of the company, and of how we have connected millions of people around the world. At MagicLab, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best and most talented entrepreneurs. My aim now is to ensure a smooth and successful transition before I embark on a new business venture in search of innovative leaders with new and exciting ideas. I am grateful for all the support of my partners and employees over the years as we couldn’t have gotten to this point without them. I wish MagicLab and Blackstone every success.”

Whitney Wolfe Herd added: “This transaction is an incredibly important and exciting moment for Bumble and the MagicLab group of brands and team members. Blackstone is world-class at maximizing the success of entrepreneur-led companies, which presents a tremendous opportunity. We are very excited to build the next chapter with them. I am honored to take on the role of CEO of the group. I will strive to lead the group with a continued values-based and mission-first focus, the same one that has been core to Bumble since I founded the company five years ago. We will keep working towards our goal of recalibrating gender norms and empowering people to connect globally, and now at a much faster pace with our new partner.”

Jon Korngold, Head of Blackstone Growth (BXG), said: “We’re excited to invest in MagicLab, which is a pioneer in the fast-growing online dating industry. They have a highly talented team and strong set of platforms, including Bumble, which was built on a commitment to inclusion and female empowerment. This partnership is a perfect example of Blackstone’s ability to use its scale, long-term investment horizon, and deep bench of operational resources to help entrepreneurs take advantage of transformational growth opportunities in order to create global industry leaders over time.”

Martin Brand, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, added: “We look forward to partnering with MagicLab to help fuel the company’s continued expansion in the years ahead.”

Citi Global Capital Markets Inc. is serving as an exclusive financial advisor to MagicLab and is providing financing in support of the acquisition by Blackstone. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is serving as legal advisor to Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and CEO of Bumble. Baker McKenzie is serving as legal advisor to the majority shareholders of MagicLab (including Andrey Andreev) and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal advisor to Blackstone.

About MagicLab
Founded by Andrey Andreev, MagicLab invented how people meet in the modern, mobile age. Through its growing family of brands that include Badoo, Bumble, Chappy, and Lumen, MagicLab has connected and transformed the lives of over 500 million people around the world across dating, social, and business. Our group shares a foundation of technology, talent, and experience to constantly innovate new ways for people to meet and drive long-term growth.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with $554 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

Contacts

For Blackstone:
Matt Anderson
Matthew.Anderson@blackstone.com
212-390-2472

For MagicLab:
press@magiclab.co

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HubSpot Acquires PieSync, the Highest-Reviewed Data Syncing iPaaS, to Enable a Consistent View of Customers Across Hundreds of Different Technologies

Fortino Capital

Addition of PieSync’s two-way customer data synchronization technology will give growing companies a more holistic view of their customers and fuel the growth of HubSpot’s platform ecosystem

CAMBRIDGE, MA – November 4, 2019 – HubSpot, a leading growth platform, announced today that it has acquired PieSync, the fastest-growing real-time intelligent customer data synchronization platform. PieSync is one of the only iPaaS offerings that provides both a current and historical two-way sync of customer data that operates in the background, freeing up precious time so companies can focus their energy on their customers instead of their software.

“The HubSpot platform has grown significantly over the past four years, with more than 300 integrations now available to customers. While those integrations are powerful on their own, the addition of PieSync’s two-way sync technology will amplify that power and enable our customers to get the most value out of the tools they use every day,” said Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot. “PieSync has the highest customer reviews of any iPaaS on the market, which is a huge testament to the power of their technology. We’re excited to bring them on board and further move HubSpot from an all-in-one suite to an all-on-one platform.”

To grow today, companies need to put their customers at the center of their entire operation. That can be hard to do when customer data is spread across disparate solutions – according to data from Blissfully, the average employee uses at least eight apps on any given day. Even when software is integrated, customer data can become out-of-date and inconsistent across tools, leading to complexity and friction for internal teams and customers alike. PieSync enables companies to have a consistent view of their customers across every piece of technology they use.

“Mattias and I founded PieSync to help businesses unlock the value of connecting and synchronizing information across the fast-growing SaaS market,” said Ewout Meyns, co-founder and CEO of PieSync. “We share HubSpot’s vision of a world where contact and company data sit at the center of every organization. We’re excited to join the team and can’t wait to execute that vision together.”

PieSync was launched in 2014 with a startup investment from accelerator program Imec.istart and investor Dirk Vermunicht. In 2016, the company raised an additional seed round from AAAF, PMV, Luc Burgelman and an additional investor. Subsequently in 2018, the company raised a Series A funding led by Fortino Capital and all existing investors.

Learn more about how PieSync and HubSpot work together here.

About HubSpot

HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is a leading growth platform. Since 2006, HubSpot has been on a mission to make the world more inbound. Today, over 64,500 total customers in more than 100 countries use HubSpot’s award-winning software, services, and support to transform the way they attract, engage, and delight customers. Comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and a powerful free CRM, HubSpot gives companies the tools they need to Grow Better.

HubSpot has been named a top place to work by Glassdoor, Fortune, The Boston Globe, and The Boston Business Journal. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, MA with offices in Dublin, Ireland; Singapore; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; Bogotá, Colombia; and Portsmouth, NH.

Learn more at www.hubspot.com.

Press Contact

Ellie Flanagan
eflanagan@hubspot.com
857-829-5301

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Livingstone Technologies agrees to acquire Cloud Optics

Carlyle

Livingstone Technologies agrees to acquire Cloud Optics as part of its continued investment in the Software Lifecycle Management Space

London UK, October 31, 2019 – Livingstone Technologies supported by global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announces that it has agreed to acquire Cloud Optics as it continues to invest in the Software Lifecycle Management market.

Equity for the investment will come from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners III (“Carlyle”) and reinvestment from the founders and Livingstone Management. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Cloud Optics is a leading independent consultancy, providing cloud and software license and consulting services across mega-vendors including Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP and Salesforce.

Cloud Optics’ lifecycle services align perfectly to those already provided by the Livingstone Group, which support global organisations in the public and private sector to procure and govern their IT estate effectively, based on trustworthy data and asset intelligence.  Cloud Optics’ best in class commercial and contractual solutions strengthen the group’s portfolio of services, allowing it to help clients to optimise their software and cloud estates and align them to their actual requirements.

This strategic acquisition will enable Livingstone to assess a client’s current and future software needs to produce an optimal Bill of Material.  It will then support clients through vendor negotiations with benchmarking support services, allowing clients to optimise their licensing, product and contract positions.

This investment represents the fourth significant investment that Carlyle has made in the Software Asset Management (SAM) sector in the last eighteen months, with the previous acquisitions of Livingstone Technologies (UK) enabling the further acquisitions of Siwel (USA) and more recently Derive Logic (UK).

Trevor Rolls, Chairman, Livingstone Group, said: “Livingstone Group will now be able to offer a comprehensive range of services that provides real value and tangible outcomes to our global clients, through the provision of trustworthy data and the intelligence that keeps them compliant. The acquisition of Cloud Optics enables us to deliver the best commercial outcomes from their cloud & software vendors, through our negotiation support services.  These are truly exciting times for our business and our clients around the world.”

Harmeet Assi, Chief Executive Officer, Cloud Optics said: “We are delighted to be joining the Livingstone Group, with our combined skill sets and portfolio we will have much greater breadth, depth and reach to deliver best in class end to end outcomes for our Clients. Our combined services are hugely complimentary and as a team we are very excited to join the Livingstone family.”

Fernando Chueca, Managing Director, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, said: “In a relatively short period of time, Cloud Optics has established itself as a leading provider of software licencing advice to blue-chip customers and built a promising cloud advisory proposition. We are delighted to support the combination of Livingstone and Cloud Optics, which will deliver best in class services to all its joint customers. We welcome Harmeet and his team to the enlarged Livingstone family and look forward to working with them.”

Transcend Corporate (Corporate Finance), Osborne Clarke (Legal) and Spencer Gardner Dickins (Tax) advised Cloud Optics.

About Cloud Optics

Cloud Optics is a team of highly experienced and skilled Software License Consultants that deliver a range of Software License Consulting and Managed Services across Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP and Salesforce.  Using a unique underpinning methodology, it advises, develops and implements solutions that improves and optimises client’s software license position from a contractual and commercial perspective. Its solutions drive measurable and tangible results for its clients, whilst always meeting responsibly their short and long-term technology requirements.  Cloud Optic’ consultants are recognised as some of the most experienced and skilled in the world having provided services to Fortune 500 global clients regularly and having worked on some the largest, complex and sophisticated software license negotiation’s in the world Cloud Optics is headquartered in Richmond, UK.

Web: www.cloud-optics.com

About Livingstone Technologies

Livingstone Technologies Limited is an independent, data and tool agnostic provider SAM managed services and a trusted partner to complex multinational corporations. The company combines proprietary technology, large vendor licensing expertise and proven methodologies to produce accurate SAM intelligence. Rapid onboarding of Livingstone’s managed service means that the company can deliver comprehensive reports within the first six weeks of an engagement.  The reporting helps CIO/CTOs, IT Procurement, SAM and ITAM professionals, make smart business decisions on software. Livingstone’s customers are its greatest advocates and represent some of the world’s largest and most complex organisations. For them, the company has delivered hard cost savings, quantifiable risk mitigation, licence optimisation and vendor audit readiness.

Web: www.livingstone-tech.com

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $222 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2019, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,775 people in 33 offices across six continents.

Web: www.carlyle.com

Contacts:

Livingstone
Chris Lewis
+44 203 817 4880
Chris.lewis@livingstone-tech.com

The Carlyle Group
Rory Macmillan
+44 207 894 1630
roderick.macmillan@carlyle.com

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BBS Automation acquires ReaLead and closes group financing

eqt

Following a successful EUR 140 million refinancing, EQT portfolio company BBS Automation steps up its ambitious consolidation strategy and closes its third add-on in one year; ReaLead, a founder-led Chinese automation business with strong growth momentum and complementary customer base.
Headquartered in Munich, Germany, BBS Automation (“BBS”) develops flexible and high-quality automation solutions for complex manufacturing and testing processes. With production sites in Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, the US, China and Malaysia, BBS Automation supports a diverse network of blue-chip customers on a global scale. The EQT Mid Market Europe and EQT Mid Market Asia III funds jointly invested in BBS in May 2018 alongside the company’s founding families to support continued growth, both organically and through add-on acquisitions.

ReaLead is BBS’ third add-on under EQT’s ownership period and follows the acquisition of ANT Solutions, a Polish founder-led provider of digital factory solutions in November 2018 and TEAM (now BBS Winding), a founder-led Italian specialist for coil winding technology for e-engines in May 2019.
The recent EUR 140 million refinancing of BBS’ existing working capital and guarantee facility is set to provide sufficient financial headroom for increased organic growth and financial flexibility for further consolidation of the automation market.

BBS Automation and ReaLead – making use of EQT’s global platform
Founded by Kevin Nie in Kunshan, China, ReaLead is a fast-growing automation solutions provider with strong credentials, technical capabilities and high quality of services. The company has a longstanding track record of providing a diverse range of automation solutions, including die casting parts, electric vehicle parts and the company is one of the early entrants, and an important player, in the fast-growing 5G telecommunication space. With approximately 150 employees and an experienced technical team, ReaLead serves both Western blue chips as well as domestic Chinese customers.

By joining forces, BBS is ideally positioned to accelerate growth in Asia, and in particular, gain access to ReaLead’s Chinese customer base and country-wide manufacturing automation network. Furthermore, ReaLead is expected to enable BBS’ diversification into the Chinese 5G telecommunications space, while leveraging exposure to new potential customers through both BBS’ and EQT’s global platforms.

Josef Wildgruber, CEO of BBS Automation, commented: “The addition of ReaLead is well-aligned with our intention of strengthening our global network and increasing our Chinese presence to continue enabling our customers the best possible automation solutions and service. Kevin and our new Chinese colleagues are energetic and motivated, and we are excited to welcome them to the BBS family.”

Kevin Nie, Founder of ReaLead, added: “We are very excited to join BBS and take this next step in ReaLead’s evolution. This partnership will enable us to leverage on the technical know-how and successful experience of BBS, to improve our quality of offering and enable us to continue to drive value creation for our customers.”

Jerry He, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market Asia III, concluded: “We are very happy to see that EQT’s dual-fund investment in BBS is off to a very good start with a track record of exciting strategic add-ons and excellent collaboration with the founding partners. This is a great example of how to leverage the strategic advantages of EQT’s global platform, which enables cross-continental teamwork and sharing of local know-how. The acquisition of ReaLead will broaden BBS’ offering, market competitiveness and customer access in the fast-growing Chinese market. Looking ahead, BBS will continue to leverage on the ‘local-with-local’ expertise of both EQT’s European and Asian teams and the global network of EQT Advisors.”

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Swarm64 raises fresh capital to accelerate growth from FPGA inventor Xilinx

Alliance Venture

Swarm64 and Xilinx teaming to meet growing demand for FPGA-accelerated database management solutions.

Berlin, October 8, 2019 – Swarm64 (swarm64.com), a leader in FPGA-accelerated database management solutions, today announced Xilinx, Inc. has invested in Swarm64 and will work together to deliver high-performance analytic databases that are easy to deploy and scale at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than existing solutions in the market.

“Swarm64 has demonstrated impressive analytic database price-performance gains on Alveo accelerator cards,” said Donna Yasay, vice president of marketing, Data Center Group at Xilinx. “We are excited to work with Swarm64 to address growing enterprise demand for database solutions that enable new analytic and digital business innovations.”

Swarm64 Data Accelerator for Analytics runs on servers equipped with Xilinx Alveo cards to deliver up to 50x faster analytic query and data insertion performance for PostgreSQL open source database users. PostgreSQL is one of the most widely used databases in the world and Swarm64 DA running on the Xilinx platform enables a powerful SQL solution for customers looking to replace their legacy data warehouse with a seamless integration of hardware accelerators and popular open source software.

“We are very happy to be working with Xilinx to bring new FPGA-accelerated database solutions to market,” said Thomas Richter, CEO of Swarm64. “Swarm64 FPGA-based software delivers a new database user experience, including better price-performance, easier scaling, and even the ability to reconfigure the FPGA hardware to enable advanced features like text processing.”

Swarm64 will use the investment to develop new solutions that leverage the reconfigurability of FPGA hardware to accelerate specific workloads on PostgreSQL such as time series, full-text search, geospatial and others.

About Swarm64

Swarm64 is the developer of hardware accelerator solutions for analytics based on PostgreSQL, one of the most widely used databases in the world. By leveraging FPGA hardware accelerators, Swarm64 provides the easiest way for businesses to scale performance for analytics systems. The company works in close partnership with both leading FPGA suppliers, Intel and Xilinx. Founded in 2013, Swarm64 has built a world-class team developing hardware accelerator images and database software extensions. It is backed by leading venture investors from the US, Norway, and Germany, and has offices in Berlin, Seattle, and Boston.

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DIF Capital Partners’ investment in Irish Schools PPP project successfully completed

DIF

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to report that the construction of the Irish Schools PPP Bundle 5 project (the “Project”) has been successfully delivered. The comprehensive restructuring was required due to the liquidation of the project contractor Carillion in 2018, which initially led to a standstill of the construction of the new school facilities and uncertainty for many students.

Carlow Campus, including Tyndall college and the institute of Further Education are the last facilities in the Project that opened their doors to students for the start of the new school year. This marks the successful completion of all six facilities within the Project. The other facilities became operational in Q3 2018 and Q2 2019.

The Irish Schools PPP Programme, procured by the National Development Finance Agency (“NDFA”) on behalf of the Department of Education & Skills (“DoES”), represents a major investment in education infrastructure through the delivery of new, state-of-the-art education facilities by way of public private partnership (“PPP”) arrangements. The Project delivered five replacement schools and one replacement Institute of Further Education that will be used by DoES as a template for other projects as a centre of excellence.

DIF had previously confirmed its longstanding commitment to the Project by appointing Omagh-based Woodvale Construction (“Woodvale”) as a replacement contractor in June 2018, following the liquidation of Carillion, a UK construction company and DIF’s original co-shareholder in the Project. This built on Woodvale’s experience in projects to deliver education facilities. Integrated facilities management services and life cycle provisions are provided by Sensori Facilities Management, a joint venture of John Sisk and Son, one of the largest Irish construction companies, and Designer Group, the Dublin-based international electrical and mechanical engineering business.

DIF was able to proceed with the Project and to successfully deliver it due to constructive cooperation and negotiations between all stakeholders. This will secure education in all new facilities over the next 25 years.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6 billion of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in construction and operational infrastructure assets, that generate stable and predictable cash flows, located in Europe, Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF Infrastructure V targets equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, regulated utilities and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams.
  • DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I targets equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams.

DIF has a team of over 135 professionals, based in nine offices located in Schiphol (the Netherlands), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

Contact:
Allard Ruijs, Partner
Email: a.ruijs@dif.eu

 

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Bain Capital agreed with U.S. Cheetah Digital Inc. to acquire its Japanese E-mail Service Provider Business

BainCapital

Hong Kong, October 1, 2019 – Bain Capital Private Equity is pleased to announce today that it has acquired Japanese e-mail service provider business from a U.S. marketing solutions provider Cheetah Digital, Inc. (Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois), via Cheetah Digital Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Eugene Hashimoto) (“Cheetah Digital”). The acquisition price has not been disclosed.

Cheetah Digital’s e-mail service provider, MailPublisher, has the industry-leading technologies in the growing digital marketing space. It is distributing 6.1 billion e-mails on a monthly basis, and is introduced to more than 5,300 companies in total. MailPublisher has established a critical infrastructure to its customers, and is maintaining the top share in the e-mail service provider market for the 11 consecutive years.

Yuji Sugimoto, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Private Equity, said: “MailPublisher of Cheetah Digital has an exceptional functionality delivering a large volume of e-mails at high speed, with high security and without delivery failure. Bain Capital will be providing active support for their further growth, including expansion of new functions.”

Bain Capital will be able to fully utilize its knowledge and proven track record in software-related areas globally, in further developing new functions in line with recent digital marketing trends, and in securing new customers through active investments in sales and marketing. Bain Capital continues to be active in investments in the software sector.

About Bain Capital Private Equity
Bain Capital Private Equity (www.baincapitalprivateequity.com) has partnered closely with management teams to provide the strategic resources that build great companies and help them thrive since its founding in 1984. Bain Capital Private Equity’s global team of approximately 240 investment professionals create value for its portfolio companies through its global platform and depth of expertise in key vertical industries including healthcare, consumer/retail, financial and business services, industrials, and technology, media and telecommunications. Bain Capital has offices in Boston, Chicago, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Dublin, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Munich, Guangzhou, Melbourne, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. The firm has made primary or add-on investments in more than 875 companies since its inception. In addition to private equity, Bain Capital invests across asset classes including credit, real estate, public equity and venture capital, managing more than USD 105 billion in total and leveraging the firm’s shared platform to capture opportunities in strategic areas of focus.

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AURELIUS closes acquisition of BT Fleet Solutions from BT Group Plc

Aurelius Capital

  • Acquisition of the UK’s #1 commercial fleet management business delivering a comprehensive suite of services to blue chip customers, via its national network completed
  • Recent contract wins worth GBP 43 million
  • UK continues to be an attractive market for AURELIUS

Munich / London, 1. October 2019 – AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN DE000A0JK2A8) has completed the acquisition of industry leading end-to-end commercial fleet management operator, BT Fleet Solutions from BT Group Plc, with effect from 30 September 2019.

Headquartered in Solihull, BT Fleet Solutions offers a comprehensive suite of fleet management services across all stages of the vehicle life cycle, through its network of 65 in-house garages, 500 partner facilities and 50+ mobile technicians. Established in 2002, BT Fleet Solutions employs around 950 staff around the UK, and manages more than 80,000 vehicles for over 26 blue chip customers across diversified industries. The latest published statutory accounts for 2017/18 for BT Fleet Ltd show revenues of GBP 209.5 million and its industry leading position leaves it well placed to capture the high levels of growth available in the UK’s fleet management market.

BT Fleet Solutions has recently signed two significant contract wins, as follows:

  • A 5+2 year contract with construction company Kier Group to manage all passenger and commercial vehicle fleet services on an outsourced basis, including vehicle maintenance, accident management and invoice management. The contract is due to go live in December 2019 with a value of GBP 39 million to BT Fleet Solutions.
  • A 30-month contract with Highways England to provide fleet maintenance and management services to its fleet of around 420 vehicles. The contract value to BT Fleet Solutions is GBP 4 million.

“We see substantial growth potential for BT Fleet in the British market and we are looking forward to realizing this potential together with the company’s management and team,“ said Dr. Dirk Markus, Chief Executive Officer of the AURELIUS Group. “The United Kingdom will continue to be an attractive market for us in the future as well. Brexit and the related uncertainty are creating special opportunities from which investors like us can benefit.“

The divestment of BT Fleet Solutions aligns with BT’s ongoing transformation programme and strategy of focusing on converged connectivity and services, with further investments in both its fixed and mobile networks via programmes such as full fibre and 5G.
This deal represents another example of AURELIUS’ specialism in complex divestment processes. In the coming months, AURELIUS’ operational task force will support BT Fleet Solutions in executing a carve out from BT, ensuring a seamless continuation of the company’s day to day operations, whilst working to position the business as an independent entity. The company is expected to be rebranded within the next 12 months.

 

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Blackstone Closes Acquisition of Vungle, a Leading Mobile Performance Marketing Platform

Blackstone

Vungle promotes Jeremy Bondy to Chief Operating Officer

NEW YORK–Blackstone (NYSE:BX) announced today that private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have completed the previously announced acquisition of Vungle, a leading performance marketing platform for in-app video advertisements on mobile devices.

Vungle is trusted by publishers of more than 60,000 mobile apps worldwide, including top brands such as Rovio, Zynga, Pandora, Microsoft, and Scopely, among others. The company serves more than 4 billion video views per month over a billion unique devices, and is consistently ranked #1 for cross-platform user retention by industry mobile performance indexes. Vungle is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in London, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and Seoul.

The acquisition brings together Vungle’s leading performance marketing platform for in-app advertising with Blackstone’s demonstrated success in partnering with category leaders to support and accelerate their growth.

“Vungle’s rich expertise in the high-growth, in-app performance advertising market and strong focus on the mobile experience position the company well for continued success,” said Sachin Bavishi, Principal at Blackstone. “We are excited to support Vungle as it continues to expand its platform capabilities and enter new markets to better serve advertisers and publishers.”

Martin Brand, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “We are pleased to complete this transaction, and look forward to investing in Vungle and pursuing a business plan focused on accelerating growth.”

Rick Tallman, CEO of Vungle, said: “We are delighted to join the Blackstone portfolio of companies and kick off the next chapter of Vungle’s story. With Blackstone’s resources and expertise, we will build upon our proven track record as a trusted guide for mobile growth and engagement for the world’s largest brands.”

Concurrent with the completion of the transaction, Vungle is promoting Jeremy Bondy to the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer. He will continue to oversee global revenue and Vungle Creative Labs, while ensuring operational excellence across the business.

“Jeremy is a seasoned and trusted leader who consistently delivers results,” added Rick Tallman. “Jeremy’s sales and operational leadership have been instrumental to our rapid, profitable growth over the past five years. I look forward to working closely with him in his new role as we continue to expand our company and better serve our customers.”

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as financial advisor to Vungle and Guggenheim Securities, LLC is serving as financial advisor to Blackstone on the transaction. DLA Piper LLP (US) is serving as legal advisor to Vungle and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal advisor to Blackstone.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies in which we invest, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our businesses, with $545 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on twitter @Blackstone.

About Vungle
Vungle is the trusted guide for growth and engagement, transforming how people discover and experience apps. Mobile application developers partner with Vungle to monetize their apps through innovative in-app ad experiences that are inspired by insight and crafted with creativity. Advertisers depend on Vungle to reach, acquire, and retain high-value users worldwide. Vungle develops tools that include data-led buying and UX recommendations, ad format innovation, creative automation, and more. Vungle’s data-optimized ads run on over 1 billion unique devices to drive engagement and increase returns for publishers and advertisers ranging from indie studios to powerhouse brands, including Rovio, Zynga, Pandora, Microsoft, and Scopely. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices around the world in London, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore. For more information, visit www.vungle.com or follow the company on Twitter @Vungle

Contact
Matt Anderson
212-390-2472
matthew.anderson@blackstone.com

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Castik Capital supports further growth of AddSecure

Castik Capital

Funds advised by Castik Capital S.à r.l (“Castik”) acquire the majority of AddSecure shares. Castik is a European private equity firm with a long- term approach to value creation that will support the company’s further growth.

AddSecure, a leading European provider of premium solutions for secure data and critical communications, and Castik Capital, a European private equity firm, today announced that Castik has acquired AddSecure from Abry Partners. Castik becomes the new majority shareholder of AddSecure while Abry Partners will maintain a minority ownership position with AddSecure management also investing into the company.

The acquisition of AddSecure by Castik is a strong validation of AddSecure’s clear vision, expansive growth strategy, and the company’s development. Over the past three years, the company has tripled in size and is now present in 12 countries.

Castik Capital, known for pursuing profitable investments in high-quality and growing businesses, which are headquartered in Europe and led by strong management teams, recognizes the distinct opportunity AddSecure has to establish the company as the leading provider of secure data and communications in Europe and will strongly support the company’s organic and acquisitive growth going forward.

“We are thrilled that AddSecure will be joining our family of portfolio companies and to have this opportunity to work closely with the company’s management team. We are impressed by their journey and look forward to accelerating and promoting AddSecure’s on-going success”, said Michael Phillips, Partner at Castik Capital.

“This is an affirmation of strength for all of us who work at AddSecure. It feels very gratifying that Funds advised by Castik are making a significant investment in us, and in the strategy that we have put into place for 2025. Castik is a perfect fit as new owners, providing a stable, long-term foundation to enable us to further accelerate our efforts in innovation, growth and profitability”, said Stefan Albertsson, CEO of AddSecure.

“That Abry Partners stays as a minority owner shows their continued confidence in AddSecure and our strategy. Abry has actively supported our ambitious growth agenda and helped us entering new markets”, Albertsson continued.

“During Abry Partners’ ownership, AddSecure has grown from a local Scandinavian alarm solutions provider to a European supplier of smart, connected IoT solutions targeted to alarms, rescue, utilities, transport, and logistics customers. The company has executed a successful M&A strategy to reach these verticals and has continued to strengthen its organization over our investment period. We look forward to working with the team and Castik on the next phase of AddSecure’s journey”, said Rob Nicewicz, Principal at Abry Partners.

With a mission to deliver value to its customers by securing their life- and business critical applications, AddSecure has built a comprehensive portfolio of secure solutions to serve organizations and teams within Smart Alarms, Smart Rescue, Smart Grids and Smart Transport.

Stefan Albertsson will remain the CEO of AddSecure. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For more information, please contact:

Stefan Albertsson, CEO, AddSecure
Mobile: +46 76 106 27 28, Stefan.albertsson@addsecure.com

Kristina Grandin, Corporate Marketing Manager, AddSecure Mobile: +46 70 689 52 08, kristina.grandin@addsecure.com

About Castik

Castik Capital S.à r.l (“Castik”) manages investments in private equity. Castik is a European multi-strategy investment manager, acquiring significant ownership positions in European private and public companies, where long-term value can be generated through active partnerships with management teams. Founded in 2014, Castik is based in Luxembourg and focuses on identifying and developing investment opportunities across Europe. The advisor to Castik is Castik Capital Partners GmbH, based in Munich. Investments are made by the Luxembourg-based fund, EPIC I SLP, the first fund managed by Castik, which had its final fund close of EUR 1bn in July 2015.

About Abry Partners

Abry is one of the most experienced and successful sector-focused private equity investment firms in North America. Since their founding in 1989, the firm has completed over $82.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity or preferred equity placements. Currently, the firm manages over $5.0 billion of capital across their active funds.
For more information on Abry, please visit www.abry.com.

About AddSecure

AddSecure is a leading European provider of premium solutions for secure data and critical communications. The company serves over 50,000 customers and partners around Europe with secure communications and solutions that help customers safeguard their life- and business-critical applications. This helps save lives, protect property and vital societal functions, and drive business.
AddSecure offers solutions within Smart Alarms, Smart Rescue, Smart Grids and Smart Transport.

The company founded in the early 1970s today employs more than 330 staff. AddSecure is headquartered in Sweden and has regional offices as well as a network of distributors around Europe.
AddSecure is owned by Abry Partners, an American private equity fund founded in 1989 and headquartered in Boston, USA.

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