Francisco Partners

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Francisco Partners
TypePrivate
IndustryPrivate equity
FoundedAugust 1999; 22 years ago (1999-08)
FoundersDipanjan Deb, Benjamin Ball, Neil Garfinkel, Sanford R. "Sandy" Robertson, David Stanton
Headquarters
Letterman Digital Arts Center
San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
Dipanjan Deb (CEO), David Golob (CIO), Ezra Perlman and Deep Shah (Co-Presidents), Tom Ludwig (COO)
AUM$25 billion (2020)[1]
Number of employees
79[2] (2021)
Websitewww.franciscopartners.com

Francisco Partners is an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses.[3] Founded in August 1999 and based in San Francisco with offices in London and New York, Francisco Partners Management L.P. has raised approximately USD $24 billion in committed capital as of June 2020 when the firm raised nearly $10 billion for tech company investments.[4][5] As of 2020, Francisco Partners had more than $25 billion in assets under management[6] and invested in over 300 companies in the technology sector.[7]

History[edit]

1999–2011[edit]

Francisco Partners was founded in August 1999[8] in Menlo Park, California, during the emergence of dedicated technology buyout firms.[9] Founders Sanford Robertson, Dipanjan Deb, David Stanton, Benjamin Ball, and Neil Garfinkel came from a variety of private equity firms. Robertson had been the founder of the technology-focused investment bank Robertson Stephens, while Deb[10] left TPG Capital in August 1999 to help found the firm.[9] Among its notable early investments, in 2000 the firm paid $375 million in cash to purchase 90% of Advanced Micro Devices' communications products division.[11] Francisco Partners then raised $800 million in 2002 to purchase 90% of Global eXchange Services, a unit of the General Electric Company[12][13] handling sales operations for about 30,000 multinational companies.[12]

The firm purchased NPTest in 2003, the semiconductor-testing unit of Schlumberger,[14] and by the following year Francisco Partners had more than 30 active portfolio companies.[15] Francisco Partners purchased Smart Modular from the Solectron Corporation in 2004, with Smart Modular going public two years later.[16] From 2005 until 2010 the firm owned the software company RedPrairie.[17] In 2006 the company led a leveraged buyout of Metrologic Instruments, which makes laser and holographic-based scanners,[18] and also purchased WatchGuard.[19] The firm purchased API Healthcare in 2008[17] and by 2010 Francisco Partners' other healthcare holdings included AdvancedMD, Healthland, QuadraMed, and T-System.[20]

2012–2015[edit]

By 2012, the Francisco Partners' funds had about $7 billion in capital and invested "exclusively in technology companies across sectors including semiconductors, capital equipment and electronics components."[21] That year the company acquired the software company Ichor from American Industrial Partners,[22] as well as Plex Systems[23] and Kewill.[24] The firm invested in Paymetric in 2013,[25] selling the company to Vantiv in Atlanta, Georgia four years later.[26] After acquiring the e-commerce services company Avangate in 2013,[27] in 2014 the firm invested in the software company Prosper, with Francisco Partners' executive David Golob becoming a Prosper director.[28] Also in 2014 Francisco Partners invested in the information technology company CoverMyMeds[3] and paid $120 million for a majority stake[29][30] in the controversial spy company NSO Group,[31][29] sold in 2019.[32] The firm completed raising about $2.9 billion for its fourth fund in 2015.[33] That year the firm also purchased the California-based analytics company Procera Networks for $240 million and the Israeli workplace management company ClickSoftware Technologies for $438 million.[34] The firm invested in GoodRx in 2015 as well.[35]

2016–2019[edit]

Francisco joined with Elliott Management in June 2016 to buy the SonicWall[19] and Quest Software[36] subsidiaries from Dell as part of the spinoff of Dell Software.[19][37] The SonicWall investment attracted some controversy in the press, as Francisco Partners had also invested in the competitor WatchGuard, going against norms in the private equity industry.[19] Also in 2016, the firm sold Aesynt to Omnicell for $275 million and took Ichor Holdings public with an initial public offering.[36][38] In late 2016, Francisco Partners launched its Agility fund, raising approximately $600 million of committed capital to focus on smaller technology deals.[39] Shortly afterwards, Francisco Partners invested in Dynamo Software,[40] Pet Circle,[41] Discovery Education,[42] and myON, the latter of which was sold in 2018.[43] Additional investments in 2016 and 2017 included companies such as SmartBear Software,[44] iconectiv,[45] Connecture Inc.,[46] Betterment,[47] and Sintec Media.[36]

In 2017, Francisco Partners sold CoverMyMeds to McKesson[48] and Paymetric to Vantiv,[49] and also sold PayLease[50] and Corsair.[51] Francisco Partners bought, and subsequently sold, James Allen.com in 2017.[52] In June 2017, Francisco Partners also acquired Sandvine, a Canadian public company that was combined with Procera,[53] for $444 million.[54] Francisco Partners was named Private Equity Firm of the Year by Mergers & Acquisitions in 2017.[36] The firm's fifth fund, Francisco Partners V, was formed at the end of 2017 with approximately $4 billion of committed capital.[55] The year after Francisco Partners V's launch, the firm acquired Bomgar Corporation,[56] Renaissance Learning,[57] and LegalZoom.[58] In June 2018 Francisco Partners purchased VeriFone[59] for $3.4 billion. Also in 2018, Blackstone’s Strategic Capital Group and Goldman Sachs’ Petershill program acquired a minority stake in Francisco Partners.[55]

On September 30, 2019, Francisco Partners announced its intent to acquire Orchard Software Corporation, a privately owned company specializing in medical laboratory software.[60]

2020[edit]

In 2020, Francisco Partners joined Diligent Corporation's Modern Leadership Initiative and pledged to create five new board roles among its portfolio companies for gender or ethnically diverse candidates.[61][62]

On October 26, 2020, Francisco Partners announced the acquisition of Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company formerly owned by Raytheon Technologies.[63] The firm, shortly thereafter, bought MyFitnessPal from Under Armour for $345 million.[64] The acquisition completed on December 1, 2020.[65]

On August 31, 2020, the deal closed for Francisco Partners to buy LogMeIn,[66] most known for LastPass password manager, for $4.3 billion together with Evergreen Coast Capital Corp.,[67] a private equity affiliate of Elliot Management Corp.

In September 2020, Francisco Partners investment GoodRx went public on the Nasdaq, with a market cap of about $19.4 billion.[68]

2021[edit]

On January 11, 2021, Francisco Partners completed acquisition of Forcepoint.[69] Also in early 2021, Francisco Partners acquired MyHeritage for a reported 600 million dollars.[70] In May 2021, Francisco Partners and TPG Capital agreed to acquire cloud-based integration business Boomi from Dell for $4 billion.[71] In July 2021 Francisco Partners acquired STARLIMS from Abbott Informatics.[72] They also completed an acquisition for the EHR vendor OfficeAlly in December 2021.[73][74]

2022[edit]

On January 21, 2022, Francisco Partners acquired health data assets from IBM's Watson Health unit. These assets included Health Insights, MarketScan, Clinical Development, Social Program Management, Micromedex, and imaging software offerings.[75] The assets were valued at a reported $1 billion.[76]

Business model[edit]

Francisco Partners specializes in financing divisional buyouts, "take privates" of public companies, sponsored mergers and acquisitions, growth equity financing, recapitalizations, and restructurings. The firm primarily invests in maturing or mature[8] technology and technology-related companies[33] in areas such as software, internet,[34] healthcare, communications, hardware and technology services. The firm typically acquires a majority or controlling stake in its portfolio companies, but will occasionally acquire a minority interest in a company with board representation.[8] Specializing in technology buyouts, Francisco has acquired former venture capital-backed companies as well as many divisions of large conglomerates and IT companies worldwide.[15]

Offices and employees[edit]

The firm is based in San Francisco, California with an additional office in London, United Kingdom.[31][8] Francisco Partners is currently led by CEO Dipanjan Deb, one of the firm's founders,[33] along with Ezra Perlman and Deep Shah, co-presidents, and David Golob, chief investment officer.[10]

List of investments[edit]

Top-ranked in 2020 among tech specialist private equity firms,[77][78] Francisco Partners has a list of portfolio companies that changes frequently. Though not a comprehensive list, noteworthy acquisitions and investments include GoodRx,[79][80] BeyondTrust,[81] Renaissance Learning,[82] MyHeritage,[83][84] Forcepoint,[85][86] Redis Labs,[87] and Verifone.[59]

In the past Francisco Partners has held, among others, investments or ownership of ClickSoftware Technologies,[88][34] Comodo,[89] Connecture,[88][46] Discovery Education,[88] iconectiv,[88][45] LogMeIn,[90][91] Perforce (50% ownership),[92] Redis Labs,[93] Sandvine[53] (formerly Procera),[88] and SmartBear Software.[88][44]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Francisco Partners (March 29, 2019). "Form ADV - Uniform Application for Investment Adviser Registration and Report by Exempt Reporting Advisers" (PDF). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. p. 9 (Item 5D(f)). Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  2. ^ Francisco Partners (March 31, 2021). "Form ADV - Uniform Application for Investment Adviser Registration and Report by Exempt Reporting Advisers" (PDF). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. p. 8 (Item 5A). Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Suttell, Scott (November 9, 2014), CoverMyMeds receives 'growth investment' from California-based FranciscoPartners, Crain's Cleveland Business
  4. ^ Cooper, Laura; Louch, William (June 2, 2020). "Francisco Partners Raises Nearly $10 Billion for Tech Deals". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  5. ^ "Francisco Partners Raises Almost $10 Billion In Capital For Tech Investments". San Francisco News. June 5, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  6. ^ "FORM ADV UNIFORM APPLICATION FOR INVESTMENT ADVISER REGISTRATION". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  7. ^ I-Chun Chen (July 27, 2020). "GAINSystems receives investment from Francisco Partners". Chicago Business Journal. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d Company Overview of Francisco Partners Management LLC, Bloomberg
  9. ^ a b "You ain't seen nothing yet". EDN Network. January 1, 2000. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Executive Team, FranciscoPartners.com
  11. ^ "Company News; Advanced Micro to Sell Most of Communications Unit". New York Times. May 23, 2000. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  12. ^ a b Deutsch, Claudia (June 25, 2002). "G.E. Is Selling Off Most of Electronic Commerce Business". New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  13. ^ "Citing a Tight Bond Market, G.E. Makes a Loan to a Buyer". New York Times. September 28, 2002. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  14. ^ Company News; Schlumberger to Sell Semiconductor-Testing Unit, Bloomberg, June 25, 2003
  15. ^ a b Rivlin, Gary (May 15, 2004). "Bring Us Your Small, Unloved Start-Ups". The New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  16. ^ "Smart Modular Technologies in $645 Million Buyout", The New York Times, April 26, 2011
  17. ^ a b Bolton, Guy (August 14, 2010), Firm's tracking software attracted new CEO, Journal Sentinel
  18. ^ "Francisco Partners to Lead Metrologic Buyout", The New York Times, September 13, 2006
  19. ^ a b c d Gillian Tan (July 12, 2016). "How's This for a Private Equity Conflict?".
  20. ^ Xavier, Jon (October 25, 2010), PE firm buys Quantros majority, Silicon Valley Business Journal
  21. ^ UPDATE 1-PE firm Francisco Partners to buy Kewill for 89.5 mln stg, Reuters, May 2, 2012
  22. ^ Siemers, Erik (January 5, 2012), Francisco Partners acquires Tualatin's Ichor Systems, Portland Business Journal
  23. ^ Empson, Rip (December 18, 2012), Plex Systems Lands $30M From Accel To Help Global Manufacturing Transition To The Cloud, TechCrunch
  24. ^ Wembridge, Mark (May 2, 2012). "Kewill agrees to US private equity buyout". Financial Times. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  25. ^ Karkaria, Urvaksh (August 28, 2013), San Francisco Partners Takes Majority, Atlanta Business Chronicle
  26. ^ Hudson, Phil W. (April 26, 2017), Francisco Partners backed Atlanta tech company Paymetric to be acquired by Vantiv, Atlanta Business Chronicle
  27. ^ Lara-Cinisomo, Vincent (October 7, 2013), Francisco Partners acquires Avangate, Silicon Valley Business Journal
  28. ^ J. de la Merced, Michael (May 4, 2014), "Prosper, a Peer-to-Peer Lender, Raises $70 Million", The New York Times
  29. ^ a b "Secretive cyber warfare firm NSO Group explores sale: sources". Reuters. November 2, 2015.
  30. ^ Yadron, Danny (August 1, 2014). "Can This Israeli Startup Hack Your Phone?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2016-08-25.
  31. ^ a b Thomas Fox-Brewster (August 25, 2016). "Everything We Know About NSO Group: The Professional Spies Who Hacked iPhones With A Single Text".
  32. ^ "Israeli Cyberattack Firm NSO Bought Back by Founders at $1b Company Value". Haaretz.
  33. ^ a b c Porter, Kiel (May 22, 2017), Francisco Said to Target More Than $3 Billion for Tech Buyouts, Bloomberg
  34. ^ a b c Chen, Angela (30 April 2015). "ClickSoftware to Be Bought by Francisco Partners for $438 Million". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  35. ^ Term Sheet -- Thursday, October 8, Fortune, October 8, 2015
  36. ^ a b c d "Francisco Partners earns Private Equity Firm of the Year". Mergers & Acquisitions. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  37. ^ "Francisco Partners and Elliott Management to Acquire the Dell Software Group". DELL. 20 June 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  38. ^ Francisco Partners to sell Aesynt for $275m. Pitchbook, November 2, 2015
  39. ^ Term Sheet -- Monday, October 24, Francisco Partners, October 24, 2016
  40. ^ Term Sheet -- Tuesday, October 3, Fortune, October 3, 2017
  41. ^ Term Sheet -- Tuesday, November 14, Fortune, November 14, 2017
  42. ^ Discovery to shed education business for $120M as it prepares to leave Silver Spring, Washington Business Journal, February 27, 2018
  43. ^ Renaissance Learning Turns the Page with Purchase of Minnesota Firm, Xconomy, March 22, 2018
  44. ^ a b Martin, Dylan. "Boston Startups That Were Acquired or Shut Down in May". BostInno. BostInno. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  45. ^ a b UPDATE 1-Ericsson says Francisco Partners to invest $200 mln in iconectiv, Reuters, March 7, 2017
  46. ^ a b Kirchen, Rich (March 14, 2016), Connecture receives $52M investment from Francisco Partners-led group, Milwaukee Business Journal
  47. ^ Chparro, Frank (July 21, 2017), Betterment just landed an $800 million valuation, Business Insider
  48. ^ Columbus-based CoverMyMeds to be acquired by McKesson for $1.1 billion, Cleveland.com, March 1, 2018
  49. ^ Francisco Partners backed Atlanta tech company Paymetric to be acquired by Vantiv, Atlanta Business Chronicle, April 26, 2017
  50. ^ Vista Equity Partners Invests in Paylease, San Diego Business Journal, July 3, 2017
  51. ^ Term Sheet -- Wednesday, July 26, Fortune, July 26, 2017
  52. ^ Signet Buys James Allen; Comp Sales Rise, jckonline.com, August 24, 2017
  53. ^ a b Pender, Terry (2017-07-17). "Sandvine accepts $562M takeover bid". TheRecord.com. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  54. ^ "U.S. Company Faces Backlash After Belarus Uses Its Tech to Block Internet". Bloomberg.com. 11 September 2020.
  55. ^ a b Goldman, Blackstone Buy Minority Stake in Francisco Partners, Bloomberg, July 13, 2018
  56. ^ Term Sheet -- Tuesday, April 3, Fortune, April 3, 2018
  57. ^ Renaissance Learning to Get New Private Equity Owner, Change CEOs, Xconomy, May 4, 2018
  58. ^ LegalZoom reaches $2 billion valuation, L.A. Biz
  59. ^ a b "Francisco Partners to Take VeriFone Private for $3.4 Billion". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  60. ^ "Francisco Partners to Acquire Orchard Software". Francisco Partners. 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
  61. ^ Gara, Antoine (2020-09-17). "Inside The Massive New Effort To Get Minorities On Corporate Boards". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-12-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  62. ^ "Modern Governance Requires Modern Leadership". diligent.com. Retrieved 2020-12-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  63. ^ "Francisco Partners to Acquire Forcepoint from Raytheon Technologies".
  64. ^ Low, Cherlynn (October 30, 2020). "Under Armour is selling MyFitnessPal for $345 million". Engadget. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  65. ^ "Under Armour Completes Sale Of The MyFitnessPal Platform To Francisco Partners". bloomberg.com. 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  66. ^ "Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital Complete Acquisition of LogMeIn". GlobeNewswire. 17 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  67. ^ "LogMeIn agrees to be acquired by Francisco Partners and Evergreen for $4.3B". December 17, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  68. ^ Bursztynsky, Jessica (September 23, 2020). "GoodRx closes up 53% in market debut". CNBC. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
  69. ^ "Francisco Partners Completes Acquisition of Forcepoint". 11 January 2021.
  70. ^ "Francisco Partners is acquiring MyHeritage, sources say for $600M".
  71. ^ Gottfried, Miriam (May 2, 2021). "Dell Reaches Deal to Sell Boomi to TPG, Francisco Partners". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
  72. ^ "Francisco Partners to Acquire STARLIMS". www.businesswire.com. 2021-07-07. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  73. ^ "Francisco Partners - Investments - Office Ally". www.franciscopartners.com. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  74. ^ "Francisco Partners - News - Francisco Partners Acquires Office Ally to Accelerate Growth". www.franciscopartners.com. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  75. ^ Ron Miller (January 21, 2022). "Francisco Partners scoops up bulk of IBM's Watson Health unit". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  76. ^ Davis, Michelle F.; Deveau, Scott; Davalos, Jackie (2022-01-23). "IBM Sells Some Watson Health Assets for More Than $1 Billion". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  77. ^ Staff (January 27, 2021). "Francisco Partners tops 2020 HEC-DowJones Private Equity Performance Ranking". Private Equity Wire. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  78. ^ Mendonça, Elisângela (January 25, 2021). "Francisco Partners crowned 2020's top money maker". Private Equity News. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  79. ^ Staff (September 22, 2020). "GoodRx sells shares above target in latest U.S. IPO success". Reuters. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  80. ^ Bursztynsky, Jessica (September 23, 2020). "GoodRx closes up 53% in market debut". CNBC. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  81. ^ Shoorbajee, Zaid (September 13, 2018). "Bomgar to acquire fellow access management company BeyondTrust". CyberScoop. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  82. ^ Cavanagh, Sean (May 7, 2018). "Renaissance Acquired by Francisco Partners, and New CEO Takes Helm". EdWeek. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  83. ^ Berkovitz, Uri (February 24, 2021). "Francisco Partners to buy Israeli co MyHeritage". Globes. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  84. ^ Orbach, Meir (February 24, 2021). "Francisco Partners to acquire genealogy company MyHeritage in $600 million deal". CTECH. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  85. ^ Thompson, Paul (October 28, 2020). "Austin cybersecurity company Forcepoint to be bought by California investment firm". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  86. ^ Harris, David (October 27, 2020). "Raytheon Unloads Security Subsidiary Forcepoint To Private Equity". CRN. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  87. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (2019-02-19). "Redis Labs raises $60 million for its NoSQL database". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  88. ^ a b c d e f "Investments". Francisco Partners. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  89. ^ "Francisco Partners Announces Acquisition of Comodo's Certificate Authority (SSL) Business". www.businesswire.com. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
  90. ^ "LogMeIn, Inc. - LogMeIn Enters into Definitive Agreement to be Acquired by Affiliates of Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital for $86.05 per Share in Cash". 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  91. ^ "LogMeIn agrees to be acquired by Francisco Partners and Evergreen for $4.3B". 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  92. ^ "Francisco Partners, Clearlake link on Perforce deal". pitchbook.com. 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  93. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (2019-02-19). "Redis Labs raises $60 million for its NoSQL database". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2019-03-02.

External links[edit]

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