M&A Deal Summary

EQT and Ardian Acquire SUSE

On July 2, 2018, private equity firms EQT and Ardian acquired software company SUSE from Micro Focus for 2.5B USD

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is EQT’s 7th and Ardian’s 13th transaction in the Software sector.
  • This is EQT’s 13th and Ardian’s 22nd largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is EQT’s 33rd and Ardian’s 22nd transaction in Germany.

M&A Deal Summary
Date 2018-07-02
Target SUSE
Sector Software
Buyer(s) EQT
Ardian
Sellers(s) Micro Focus
Deal Type Divestiture
Deal Value 2.5B USD

Target

SUSE

Nürnberg, Germany
SUSE is a pioneer and global independent leader in open source software, specializing in Linux enterprise operating systems, container management and storage, and Edge software solutions, relied upon by many of the world’s largest enterprises to power mission-critical workloads and accelerate their digital transformation. SUSE was founded in 1992 and is based in Nürnberg, Germany.

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Buyer(S) 2

Buyer

EQT

Stockholm, Sweden

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 1994
PE ASSETS 242.0B EUR
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

EQT is a global private equity group that purses a variety of investment strategies around the world. EQT is divided into several investment disciplines, including private capital, real assets, credit, and venture. The Firm's private capital group targets large, market-leading enterprises (investment size of €125 to €1.5 billion) across Europe and the US, as well as mid-market, growth companies (investment size of €40 to €125 million) across the US, Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. The Firm's real assets group seeks to identify control or co-control equity investments (investment size of €500 to €1 billion) in medium-sized infrastructure companies that provide an essential service to society, are recession resilient, and have secure cash flows. EQT's credit group provides flexible, long-term debt capital solutions to medium-sized European businesses, across a wide range of sectors. EQT was established in 1994 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 188 of 317
Sector (Software) 7 of 14
Type (Divestiture) 38 of 51
Country (Germany) 33 of 44
Year (2018) 9 of 16
Size (of disclosed) 13 of 47
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2018-06-26 Zemax

Kirkland, Washington, United States

Zemax is a provider of software for optical and illumination designers, engineers, and researchers worldwide. Zemax also offers an application that allows engineers to develop and collaborate through computer-aided design systems. Zemax was founded in 1991 and is based in Kirkland, Washington.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2018-07-09 Sportradar

Sankt Gallen, Switzerland

Sportradar is a partner for the sports betting and media industry. Sportradar provides sports data services to the bookmaking world with its brand Betradar, and to the international media with its brand Scoreradar. Sportradar was founded in 2001 and is based in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland.

Sell $2.4B
Buyer

Ardian

Paris, France

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 1996
PE ASSETS 125.0B USD
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

Ardian is a mega-sized diversified investment group focused on opportunities worldwide. Ardian invests across and manages funds focused on small and mid-sized buyouts, growth capital financings, mezzanine, infrastructure, real estate, and co-investment opportunities. Ardian's small-buyouts group targets controlling interests in French, German, and Italian businesses valued up to €100 million. It's mid-sized buyout group seeks businesses valued up €1.5 billion and does not have any geographic limitations. The Infrastructure team looks for European opportunities and can commit up to €150 million per transaction. The Mezzanine group supports junior capital commitments of €5 to €80 million. In addition to direct investing, Ardian also manages various private equity fund-of-funds. Ardian was founded in 1996 and is based in Paris.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 317 of 418
Sector (Software) 13 of 16
Type (Divestiture) 24 of 30
Country (Germany) 22 of 30
Year (2018) 11 of 22
Size (of disclosed) 22 of 67
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2018-07-02 Mobius

Madrid, Spain

Mobius is a Spain-based online platform that offers maintenance supervision and repair services for the fleet management sector. MKD’s clients include top-tier companies from the car rental industry, including Europcar, Alphabet, Arval, Generali, Allianz, and new players in mobility management. Mobius has further extended its offer to individuals with the launch of Reparatuchoche.com. Mobius was founded in 2014 and is based in Madrid, Spain.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2018-07-10 FiloBlu

Venice, Italy

FiloBlu is a digital consulting company based in Italy, focused on digital strategies, e-commerce, and omnichannel to develop the online business and enhancing brand equity on a global scale for Brands and Retailers. FiloBlu provides its clients with a comprehensive array of local group companies in the most strategic markets, as well as integrated logistics facilities and a hub of competencies with links to a network of international partners. FiloBlu was founded in 2009 and is based in Venice, Italy.

Buy -

Seller(S) 1

SELLER

Micro Focus

Newbury, United Kingdom
Category Company
Founded 1976
Sector Software
Revenue 2.9B USD (2021)
DESCRIPTION

Micro Focus is a provider of innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. Micro Focus was founded in 1976 and is based in Newbury, the United Kingdom.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 2 of 4
Sector (Software) 2 of 3
Type (Divestiture) 2 of 4
Country (Germany) 1 of 1
Year (2018) 1 of 2
Size (of disclosed) 1 of 2
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2017-12-19 COBOL-IT

Paris, France

COBOL-IT is a strategic vendor of open-source COBOL solutions. COBOL-IT allows companies to migrate, deploy and maintain their legacy COBOL applications at minimal costs & risks, and offers the ability to embrace continuous modernization. COBOL-IT was founded in 2008 and is based in Paris, France.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2018-10-16 Micro Focus International - Atalla Hardware Security Module & Enterprise Secure Key Manager Business

Newbury, United Kingdom

Atalla Hardware Security Module (HSM) is a payments hardware security module used for protecting sensitive data and associated keys for non-cash retail payment transactions, cardholder authentication and cryptographic keys. Enterprise Secure Key Manager (ESKM) is a provider of centralized key management hardware-based solution for unifying and automating an organization’s encryption key controls by creating, protecting, serving and auditing access to encryption keys for secure, reliable administration.

Sell -
Mergr

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